108 
Z. HYDROIDA. 
Hydra. 
the vulgar disbelieved, albeit credulity may be their besetting sin, 
when even naturalists, familiar with all the miracles of the insect 
world, were amazed and wist not what to do. “ II faut” — exclaimed 
Reaumur — “ il faut porter la foi humaine plus loin qu’il n’est permis 
a des hommes eclaires, pour le croire sur le premier temoignage de 
celui qui le raconte, et assure l’avoir vu. Peut-on se resoudre a 
croire qu’il y ait dans la nature des animaux qu’on multiplie en les 
hachant, pour ainsi dire, par morceaux ?” * But this illustrious na- 
turalist was himself the first to promulgate, and experimentally to 
verify, the discoveries of Abraham Trembley, which have been fully 
confirmed by many subsequent inquirers, and are now made so familiar 
to us by their admission into elementary works and treatises on na- 
tural theology, that we read of them with little surprise and without 
incredulousness. 
* Hist, des Insectes, vi. pref. 49. 
