43* 



Microscopical Essays* 



tinual motions, excite a current of water ; the fmall bodies that 

 float or fwim near this current, are forced by it into the mouth of 

 the little animal. Mr. Trembley fays, that he has often feen a 

 number of very fmall animalcula fall one after another into the 

 mouth, fome of which were afterwards let out again at another 

 opening, which he was not able to defcribe. 



They can fafhion their mouths into feveral different forms. If 

 any thing touches them they fhrink back and contract themfelves. 

 They live independent of each other, fwimming freely through 

 the water in fearch of their prey, and fix to any thing they meet 

 with. 



Thefe animals multiply by dividing themfelves, not longitu- 

 dinally, nor tranfverfely, but floping and diagonal wife; the 

 proceedings in nature continually varying in every new form of 

 life. Of the two polypes produced by the divifion of one, the 

 firft has the old head and a new tail, the other the old tail with a 

 new head. 



To make the defcription more clear, Mr. Trembley called that 

 with the old head the fuperior polype, that with the new head the 

 inferior one. The firft particular that is obfervable in thefe 

 polypes, when they are going to divide, is the lips of the inferior 

 one ; a tranfverfe and oblique ftripe indicates the part where it is 

 going to divide ; the new lips are formed at about two-thirds of 

 the length of the polype, reckoning from the head ; the divifion 

 is made in a doping line, that goes about half way round the pa- 

 rent animal ; thefe lips are at firft difcerned by a flow motion, 

 which engages the attention of the obferver. They then infenfibly 



approach 



