676 l»HILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1742-3, 



any manner of way. And wha sa beis foundin iiifectit and not passand to tlie 

 Inche as said is be Mononday at the Sone ganging to, and in lykways the said 

 personis that takis the sd cure of sanitie upon thamegif they will use thesainyn 

 thai and ilk ane of thame salle be brynt on the cheik with the marking irne that 

 thai may be kennit in tym to cum and thairafter gif any of tham remanis that 

 thai sail be banist but favors." 



Some Account of the Insect* called the Fresh- water Polypus, beforementioned in 

 these Transactions, N" 466 and 467. By Martin Folkes, Esq. Pres. R. S. 

 N" 469, p. 422. 



After several experiments and observations on these animals, much of the 

 nature of those in the papers referred to in N°* 466 and 467, which it is not 

 necessary here to repeat, Mr. Folkes gives a description of several magnified 

 views of the animal, as referring to the several states of it, described in the 

 paper, as follows : 



PI. 17, fig. 1 represents a polypus as seen in the microscope, when in a 

 state of extension, the arms spread as when feeling for their prey, and the 

 mouth sharp and prominent. Fig. 2 and 3 represent the same insect in its most 

 contracted state. Fig. 4 and 5 show the insect when in a middle state of con- 

 traction ; the body is then wrinkled, so as to appear somewhat like a grub or 

 earth-worm. Fig. 6 is a polypus with a young one growing from its side, and 

 another from that again : this is not so much extended as that in fig. 1, and is 

 to be supposed to have taken lately some food, by which the cavity of the inside 

 is made more conspicuous, and the communication of the guts of the young 

 ones with those of the parents becomes sensible. Fig. 7 shows the appearance 

 of a polypus, that has already swallowed the best part of a worm endwise. He 

 is grasping the remaining part to draw that in also. Fig. 8 represents a polypus, 

 whose mouth is greatly extended : he has just taken in the middle part of a 

 worm ; the opening of the mouth is there remarkable, the arms seem some- 

 what contracted from the effort in stretching the mouth so wide ; the neck also 

 may be there observed between the mouth and the stomach, but which will 

 soon disappear as the worm is sucked further in. Fig. 9 is another polypus, 

 nearly in the same state as the last ; but the worm is omitted in the figure, to 

 show the form of the mouth more distinctly. Fig. 10 shows the same polypus 

 when the worm is drawn quite double into his stomach ; here the neck entirely 

 disappears, and the whole is like an open bag or purse. Fig. 1 1 is the same 

 polypus, after he has entirely swallowed his worm ; the mouth is now again 



* Zoophyte ; see the remark subjoined to Dr. Mortimer's paper, p, 623 of this vol. of these 

 Abridgments. 



