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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
owe to medical men ! — to whom science is indebted for satis- 
factorily determining the animal nature of the polypifera. But 
the announcement was treated with ridicule by the learned of 
his day ; for we read how, when Peyssonnel communicated with 
Reaumur on the subject, that celebrated naturalist thought the 
idea so improbable, that in a notice of it in the Memoirs of the 
Academy of Sciences of Paris in 1727, he thought it prudent 
to suppress the author's name. Now, it happened that soon 
after this Reaumur received a communication from another 
naturalist, whose name has now become immortal — namely, 
the renowned Trembley of Geneva,* — on the subject of the 
fresh- water polypes. It is true that Leeuwenhoekf had been 
before him as the discoverer of the hydra ; but his observations 
on its nature were trifling compared with those of the Swiss 
naturalist, and they had been entirely forgotten. Discoveries, 
whether in nature or art, are seldom made by one individual 
alone. About two years after Trembley's letter to Reaumur, 
it happened that Bernard de Jussieu, the celebrated botanist, 
was engaged in examining Flustra and Tubularia on the coast 
of Normandy. Of course, at this time those substances were 
undoubted vegetable products in the opinion of all; but Jussieu 
liked to look at things with his own eyes, and he soon became 
convinced of their animal nature. Thus he was able to con- 
firm Peyssonel's discovery, J and to bring Reaumur over to his 
side. In the last century our own countryman Ellis, Pallas 
* “Trembley (Abraham) de Geneve, ne en 1710, mort en 1784 ; immortel 
par le decouverte de la reproduction du Polype.” — Cuvier. 
t Few objects escaped the lynx-eye of this admirable observer. He 
noticed on a portion of water-weed certain animalcule, “ whose bodies were 
sometimes long and sometimes contracted ; ” and on one individual he ob- 
served another of the same kind, but smaller, the tail of which seemed to be 
fastened to the other. At first he thought it might be “a young one 
fastened by chance to an old one ; but observing it more narrowly, he saw it 
was a partus,” and that it grew bigger “ in horns and body.” The species 
observed by Leeuwenhoek appears to have been Hydra fusca. “ That which 
seemed very remarkable, and even wonderful to me, was that the said 
animalculce would .sometimes extend their horns to so great a length that 
looking on them through the microscope, you would think they were several 
fathoms long.” Leeuwenhoek’s figure is a very rude representation of a 
hydra, with two young ones growing from its side (see Philosoph. Tr ansae., 
No. 283, Yol. XXIII.). It appears that an anonymous correspondent of the 
Eoyal Society discovered hydrse hi England about the same time. 
J ' Ferrande Imperato (1559), a Neapolitan, appears to have been the first 
to assert the animal nature of corals, madrepores, &c. Though his work 
went through two editions, it appears to have been little read. The mem- 
bers of the Academy of Sciences regarded Peyssonnel’s assertion as entirely 
new. 
