132 INCREASE OF ANIMALCULES. 



attack its prey ; in the act of engulphing it, and 

 with the prey wholly swallowed.* 



When two highly intelligent and accurate ob- 

 servers are thus at issue, and when their respective 

 investigations conduce to results so different, we 

 must wait for further experiments. It is, however, 

 remarkable, that in the hydra, the granules already 

 referred to, which are certainly not stomachs, also 

 become tinged with the juices of the prey on which 

 the animal feeds, which juices, by some means un- 

 known at present, they absorb, and thus charged, 

 circulate through the gelatinous substance of the 

 body. 



There is no part of the history of these animal- 

 cules more calculated to excite astonishment than 

 their mode of reproduction, so different from that of 

 other races of beings ; and what is still more sur- 

 prising is, that the same individual, as it would 

 appear, often reproduces in four different ways. 

 One mode of reproduction is by gemmules or 

 buds, sprouting from the outer 

 surface of the parent, as in the 

 hydra. These little buds gradu- 

 ally assume their destined form, 

 develop cilia, and become de- 

 tached and independent, and in a 

 INCREASE BY BUDS, short period afterwards attain 



* For other information on this doubtful point, respecting the struc- 

 ture of the digestive apparatus of the Polygastrica, see professor Jones's 

 valuable work, entitled " A General Outline of the Animal Kingdom." 



