Microscopical Essays. 



We may now be permitted to make a few refle&ions on this 

 fmgular animal. On confidering the various properties that have 

 been already defcribed, we fhall find in them many particulars-, 

 that are very analogous to others that are continually carrying on 

 around us ; we perceive that there is a fucceflive unfolding of new 

 parts. In every organized frame there is a continual effort to 

 extend it's fphere of action, and enlarge the operation of that 

 portion of life which is communicated to it. This gradual evolu- 

 tion requires a fecret and curious mechanifm to regulate and 

 modify by re- action the continued conatus of the forming prin- 

 ciple within it. The polype is an organized whole, of which 

 each part, each molecule, each atom, tends to produce another ; 

 it is, if we may fo fpeak; one entire ovary, a compound of germ, 

 or feed. In cutting a polype to pieces, the nourifhing juices, which 

 would have been employed in fupporting the whole, are made 

 to act upon each portion. 



When a polype is divided longitudinally, it forms two half 

 tubes ; the oppofite edges of thefe approach, and in a very fhort 

 time form a perfect tube. The fides are made to touch each 

 other by certain motions and contractions of the piece ; but as 

 foon as the edges come in contact, a flight adhefion takes place, 

 the correfponding veflels unite, and new ones are unfolded, as in 

 a vegetable graft ; by this means, the points of connection and 

 cohefion are multiplied, the motion of the fluids are re-eflablifhed, 

 and with them the vital ceconomy. This is performed with more 

 rapidity than in vegetables, becaufe the polype is nearly gelati- 

 nous, and it's parts are extremely ductile; this ductility is fup- 

 ported and preferved by the element which it inhabits. The fame 



reafoning 



