REPRODUCTION. 



prise has been abandoned by the enemy, 

 either in a tempest, or from any other 

 cause, before it has been led into any 

 port, it is to be restored to the proprie- 

 tor. 



REPRODUCTION is usually under- 

 stood to mean the restoration of a thing 

 before existing 1 and since destroyed. It 

 is very well known that trees and plants 

 may he raised from slips and cuttings ; 

 and some late observations have shown, 

 that there are some animals which have 

 the same property. The polype (See 

 HTDRA) was the first instance we had of 

 this kind ; but we had scarcely time to 

 \vonder at the discovery M. Treinbley 

 had made, when M. Bonett discovered 

 the same property in a species of water- 

 worm. Amongst the plants which may 

 be raised from cutting's, there are some 

 which seem to possess this quality in so 

 eminent a degree, that the smallest por- 

 tion of them will become a complete tree 

 again. A twig of willow, poplar, or many 

 other trees, being planted in the earth, 

 takes root, and becomes a tree, every 

 piece of which will in the same manne'r 

 produce other trees. The case is the 

 same with these worms ; they are cut to 

 pieces, and these several pieces become 

 perfect animals ; and each of these may 

 be again cut into a number of pieces, 

 each of which will in the same manner 

 produce an animal. It has been suppos- 

 ed by some that these \vorms were ovi- 

 parous ; but M. Bonett, on cutting one 

 of them to pieces, having observed a 

 slender substance, resembling a small 

 filament, to move at the end of one of 

 the pieces, separated it ; and on examin- 

 ing it with glases, found it to be a perfect 

 worm, of the same form with its parent, 

 which lived and grew larger in a vessel 

 of water, into which he put it. These 

 small bodies are easily divided, and very 

 readily complete themselves again, a day 

 usually serving for the production of a 

 head to the part that wants one ; and, in 

 general, the smaller and more slender 

 the worms are, the sooner they com- 

 plete themselves after this operation. 

 'When the bodies of the large worms are 

 examined by the microscope, it is very 

 easy to see the appearance of the young 

 worms alive, and moving about within 

 them ; but it requires great precision and 

 exactness to be certain of this ; since the 

 ramifications of the great artery have very 

 much the appearance of young worms, 

 and they are kept in a sort of continual 

 motion by the systoles and diastoles of 

 the several portions of the artery, which 



serve as so many "hearts. It is very cer- 

 tain, that what we force in regard to 

 these animals, by our operations, is done 

 also naturally every day in the brooks 

 and ditches where they live. A curious 

 observer will find in these places many 

 of them without heads or tails, and some 

 without either ; as also other fragments 

 of various kinds, all which are then in 

 the act of completing themselves; but. 

 whether accidents have reduced them to 

 this state, or they thus purposely throw 

 of)' parts of their own body for the repro- 

 duction of more animals, it is not easy to 

 determine. They are plainly liable to 

 many accidents, by which they lose the 

 several parts of their body, and must pe- 

 rish very early if they hail not a power of 

 reproducing what was lost ; they often 

 are broken into two pieces, by the resist- 

 ance of some hard piece of mud which 

 they enter ; and they are subject to a dis- 

 ease, a kind of gangrene, rotting off the 

 several parts of their bodies, and must 

 inevitably perish by it, had they not this 

 surprising property. 



The reproduction of several parts of 

 lobsters, crabs, Sec. is one of the greatest 

 curiosities in natural history. It seems, 

 indeed, inconsistent with the modern sys- 

 tem of generation, which supposes the 

 animal to be wholly formed in the egg, 

 that, in lieu of an organical part of an ani- 

 mal cut off, another should arise perfect- 

 ly like it : the fact, however, is too well 

 attested to be denied. The legs of lob- 

 sters, See. consist each of five articula- 

 tions ; now when any of the legs happen 

 to break by any accident, as by walking, 

 &c. which frequently happens, the frac- 

 ture is always found to be at the suture 

 near the fourth articulation ; and what 

 they thus lose is exactly reproduced in 

 some time afterwards ; that is, a part of 

 the leg shoots out, consisting of four ar- 

 ticulations, the first whereof has two 

 claws, as before ; so that the loss is en- 

 tirely repaired. 



If the leg of a lobster be broken ofTby 

 design at the fourth or fifth articulation, 

 what is thus broke off is always repro- 

 duced. But if the fracture be'made in 

 the first, second, or third articulation, the 

 reproduction is not so certain. And it is 

 very surprising, that, if the frficture be 

 made at these articulations, at the end of 

 two or three days all the other articula- 

 tions are generally found broke off to the 

 fourth, which, it is supposed, is done by 

 the creature itself, to make the repro- 

 duction certain. The part reproduced is 

 not only perfectly similar to that re- 



