2StJ HISTORY or 



microscope, there are seen several little specks, like buds, that 

 seem to pullulate from different parts of its body; and these 

 soon after appear to be young polypi, and. like the large polypus, 

 begin to cast their little arms about for prey, in the same man- 

 ner. Whatever they happen to ensnare is devoured, and gives 

 a colour not only to their o\vii bodies, but to that of the parent; 

 so that the same food is digested, and serves for the nourishment of 

 both. The food of the little one passes into the large polypus, 

 and colours its body ; and this, in its turn, digests and swallows 

 its food to pass into theirs. In this manner every polypus has a 

 new colony sprouting from its body : and these new ones, even 

 while attached to the parent animal, become parents them- 

 selves, having a smaller colony also budding from them ; all, at 

 the same time, busily employed in seeking for their prey, and 

 the food of any one of them serving for the nourishment, and 

 circulating through the bodies, of ail the rest. This society, 

 however, is every hour dissolving; those newly produced are 

 seen at intervals to leave the body of the large polypus, and 

 become, shortly after, the head of a beginning colony them- 

 selves. 



In this manner the polypus multiplies naturally ; but one may 

 take a much readier and shorter way to increase them, and this 

 only by cutting them in pieces. Though cut into thousands of 

 parts, each part still retains its vivacious qualities, and each 

 shortly becomes a distinct and a complete polypus ; whether cut 

 lengthways, or crossways, it is all the same ; this extraordinary 

 creature seems a gainer by our endeavours, and multiplies by ap- 

 parent destruction. The experiment has been tried, times without 

 number, and still attended with the same success. Here, there- 

 fore, naturalists, who have been blamed for the cruelty of their 

 experiments upon living animals, may now boast of their increas- 

 ing animal life, instead of d.estroying it. The production of the 

 polypus is a kind of philosophical generation. The famous 

 Sir Thomas Brown hoped one day to be able to produce children 

 by the same method as trees are produced : the polypus is mul- 

 tiplied in this manner ; and every philosopher may thus, if he 

 please, boast of a very numerous, though, I should suppose, a 

 very useless progeny. 



This method of generation, from cuttings, may be considered 

 as the most simple kindj and is a strong instance of the little 



