[ 143 ] 
nued; there wriggled to and fro in an undulatory mo- 
tion, turning themfelves round very quick,- all the time 
that they n^oved forwards^ I was very attentive to 
fee thefe animals divide themfelves : and at lad; I ner 
ceived a few of the appearance of Fig. i. as it is 
repiefented by the firlt magnifier of Wilfon’s microf- 
cope j but I am fo well convinced by experience, that 
they would feparate, that I did not wait to fee the 
operation: however, as the following fketches, which 
I have drawn from five other fpecies, will very fully 
explain this extraordinary phasnomenon, there will be 
no difficulty in conceiving the manner of the firfi; 
SeeFig. 2, 3,4, 5, and 6. 
The proportion of the number of the animals, 
which I have obferved to divide in this manner, to the 
reft, is fcarce i to 50 : fo that it appears rather to arife 
irom hurts received by fome few animalcula among 
the many, than to be the natural manner in which 
thefe kind of animals multiply: efpecially if we con- 
fider the infinite number of young ones which are vi- 
fible to us through the tranfparent fkins of their bo- 
dies, and even the young ones that are vifible in thofe 
young ones, while in the bodies of the old ones. 
But nothing more plainly fiiews them to be 
zoophytes than this circumftance ; that when, by ac- 
cident, the extremity of their bodies has been fhri- 
velled for want of a fupply of frefh water, the apply- 
ing more fredi water has given motion to the part of 
the animal that was dill alive j by which means this 
diapelefs figure has continued to live and fwim to and 
fro all the time it was fupplied with frefh water. 
I cannot finifh this part of my remarks on thefe 
animals, vvithout obferving, that the excellent Lin- 
naeus 
