TEIE POLYPUS. 



569 



When several polypi happen to fall upon 

 the same worm, they dispute their common 

 prey with each other. Two of them are often 

 seen seizing the same worm at different 

 ends, and dragging it at opposite directions 

 with great force. It often happens, that while 

 one is swallowing its respective end, the other 

 is also employed in the same manner, and thus 

 they continue, swallowing each his part, until 

 their mouths meet together ; they then rest, 

 each for some time in this situation, till the 

 worm breaks between them, and each goes off 

 with his share ; but it often happens that a 

 seemingly more dangerous combat ensues, 

 when the mouths of both are thus joined upon 

 one common prey together ; the largest poly- 

 pus then gapes and swallows his antagonist ; 

 but what is very wonderful, the animal thus 

 swallowed seems to be rather a gainer by the 

 misfortune. After it has lain in the conquer- 

 or's body for about an hour, it issues unhurt, 

 and often in possession of the prey which had 

 been the original cause of contention. How 

 happy would it be for men if they had as little 

 to fear from each other ! 



These reptiles continue eating the whole 

 year, except when the cold approaches to con- 

 gelation ; and then, like most others of the in- 

 sect tribe, they feel the general torpor of na- 

 ture, and all their faculties are for two or three 

 months suspended: but if they abstain atone 

 time, they are equally voracious at another, 

 and, like snakes, ants, and other animals, that 

 are torpid in -winter, the meal of one day suf- 

 fices them for several months together. In ge- 

 neral, however, they devour more largely in 

 proportion to their size, and their growth is 

 quick exactly as they are fed ; such as are best 

 supplied, soonest acquire their largest size, but 

 they diminish also in their growth with the 

 same facility if their food be taken away. 



Such are the more obvious properties of 

 these little animals, but the most wonderful 

 still remain behind : their manner of propaga- 

 tion, or rather multiplication, has for some 

 years been the astonishment of all the learned 

 of Europe. They are produced in as great a 

 variety of manner as every species of vegeta- 

 ble. Some polypi are propagated from eggs, 

 as plants are from their seed : some are pro- 

 duced by buds issuing from their bodies, as 

 plants are produced by inoculation ; while 

 all may be multiplied by cuttings, and this to 

 a degree of minuteness that exceeds even phi- 

 losophical perseverance. 



With respect to such of this kind as are 

 hatched from the egg, little curious can be 

 added, as it is a method of propagation so com- 

 mon to all the tribes of insect nature ; but with 

 regard to such as are produced like buds from 

 their parent stem, or like cuttings from an ori- 

 ginal root, their history requires a more de- 



vot. n. 



tailed explanation. If a polypus be carefully 

 observed in summer, when these animals are 

 chiefly active, and more particularly prepared 

 for propagation, it will be found to bourgeon 

 forth from different parts of its body several tu- 

 bercles or little knobs, which grow larger and 

 larger every day ; after two or throe days' in- 

 spection, what at first appeared but a small 

 excrescence takes the figure of a small ani- 

 mal, entirely resembling its parent, furnished 

 with feelers, a mouth, and all the apparatus 

 for seizing and digesting its prey. This little 

 creature every day becSmes larger, like the 

 parent to which it continues attached; it 

 spreads its arms to seize upon whatever insect 

 is proper for aliment, and devours it for its 

 own particular benefit : thus it is possessed of 

 two sources of nourishment, that which it re- 

 ceives from the parent by the tail, and that 

 which it receives from its own industry by the 

 mouth. The food which these animals receive 

 often tinctures the whole body, and upon this 

 occasion the parent is often seen communicat- 

 ing a part of its own fluids to that of its pro- 

 geny that grows upon it ; while, on the con- 

 trary, it never receives any tincture from any 

 substance that is caught and swallowed by its 

 young. If the parent swallows a red worm, 

 which gives a tincture to all its fluids, the 

 young one partakes of the parental colour ; but 

 if the latter should seize upon the same prey, 

 the parent polypus is no way benefited by thu 

 capture, but all the advantage remains with 

 the. young one. 



But we are not to suppose that the parent is 

 capable of producing only one at a time ; se- 

 veral young ones are thus seen at once, of dif- 

 ferent sizes, growing from its body, some just 

 budding forth, others acquiring their perfect 

 form, and others come to sufficient maturity, 

 and just ready to drop from the original stem 

 to which they had been attached for several 

 days. But what is more extraordinary still, 

 those young ones themselves that continue at- 

 tached to their parent, are seen to bourgeon, 

 and propagate their own young ones also, each 

 holding the same dependence upon its respec- 

 tive parent, and possessed of the same advan- 

 tages that have been already described in the 

 first connection. Thus we see a surprising 

 chain of existence continued, and numbers of 

 animals naturally produced without any union of 

 the sexes, or other previous disposition of nature. 



This seems to be the most natural way by 

 which these insects are multiplied ; their pro- 

 duction from the egg being not so common ; 

 and though some of this kind are found with a 

 little bladder attached to their bodies, which 

 is supposed to be filled with eggs, which after- 

 wards come to maturity, yet the artificial me- 

 thod of propagating these animals is much 

 more expeditious, and equally certain. It is 

 4 c 



