[ 43 ° 1 
they have the remarkable property of renewing their 
claws when they are cut off ; and ranks them, per- 
haps very properly, under the genus of Hydra of 
Linnaeus, or Freth-water polype: which I fhali now 
give a fhort defeription cf, that we may judge how 
near your Lordfhip’s new animal approaches to both 
of thefe. 
The Hydra, or Frefh- water polype, is that extra- 
ordinary animal lo well known to the curious, from 
the diicoveries of Mr. Abraham Trembley, F. R. S. 
in its re-produdtion after it had been cut into pieces. 
When it is extended, it is of a worm-fhaped figure, 
and of the fame tender fubftance with the horns of 
a common lhail. 
It adheres by one end like a fucker to water plants 
and other fubffances : the other end, which is the 
head, is lurrounded by many arms or feelers placed 
like rays round a center: this center is its mouth, and 
with thefe arms, which are capable of great exten- 
sion, it feizes fmall worms and water in lefts, and 
brings them to its mouth ; often fwallowing bodies 
larger than itfelf : when the food is digefted in the 
ftomach, it returns the remains of the animals it feeds 
on, through its mouth again, having no other vifible 
patfage from its body. 
Their manner of multiplying is from eggs, which 
they produce in autumn*; but the moft common 
is from their fides, in which there firft appear fmall 
Lnobs, or papillae; as thefe increafe in length, little 
.this genus by Doftor Pallas, as well as Doftor Gaertner, but 
very improperly, as it has many feet, and a paflage through its 
'body. Doftor Linnreus calls it Holothuria. 
* See Pallas, Zoophyt. p. ah’, 
2 
fibres 
