210 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
The buds which are to form the young polype appear on the surface 
of the body as little spherical excrescences terminating in a point. 
A few steps further towards maturity, and it assumes a conical and 
finally a cylindrical form. The arms now begin to push out at the 
anterior extremity of the young animal ; the posterior extremity by 
which it is attached to the mother contracting by degrees, until it 
appears only to touch her at one point. Finally, the separation is 
effected, the mother and the young acting in concert to produce the 
entrance of this interesting polypule into the world. Each of them 
take with their head and arms a strong point of support upon some 
neighbouring body ; and a small effort suffices to procure the separa- 
tion : sometimes the mother charges herself with the effort, sometimes 
the young, and often both. 
When the young polype is separated from the mother, it swims 
about, and executes all the movements peculiar to adult animals. The 
entrance into life and the virile age takes place with these beings at one 
and the same moment. Infancy and youth are suppressed hi this 
little world. 
So long as the young polype remains attached to the mother, she is 
the nurse ; by a touching change, the young polype nurses her in his 
turn. In short, the stomach of the mother and her young have 
communication; so that the prey swallowed by the parent passes 
partially into the stomach of her progeny. On the other hand, while 
still attached to the mother, the little ones seize the prey, which they 
share in their turn with their parent by means of the communication 
Nature has arranged between the two organisms. 
In the course of his experiments Trembley states another fact still 
more remarkable. 
Upon a young polype still attached to its mother he observed a new 
polype or polypule, and upon this unborn creature was another 
individual. Thus three generations were appended to the mother, 
who carried at once her son, her grandson, and great-grandson. 
“In observing the young polypes still attached to their mother. ” 
says Trembley, “ I have seen one which had itself a little one which 
was just issuing from its body ; that is to say, it was a mother while 
yet attached to its own mother. I had in a short time many young 
polypes attached to their mothers which had already had three or four 
little ones, of which some were even perfectly formed. They fished 
