6l6 
FRESH-WATER POLYPE. 
When a polype is slit down to the middle of its 
body, two heads will be formed, and the animal 
will feed at the same time with both. If it is slit 
into six or seven parts, each part produces a new 
head, and the animal becomes a hydra. To what- 
ever lengths this division is carried, it signifies no- 
thing ; the creature is not by this means to be de- 
stroyed ; but, on the contrary, produces a perfect 
being from every fragment. This is not all ; for 
they may be as it were grafted together. If the 
truncated pieces of a polype be placed end to end, 
and then pushed together with a gentle force, they 
will unite and form a single one. In the same 
manner pieces of different polypes may be united ; 
the head of one may be fixed on the trunk of an- 
other, and the consequence will be a perfect animal, 
which will grow, eat, and perform all the functions 
of its humble station, as well as any of the rest. 
Another mode of uniting these creatures has been 
effected, and is still more extraordinary. One 
polype has been introduced into the body of an- 
other, by pushing it through the mouth, till the 
two heads are brought together. If confined in 
this manner for some time, the two animals will be 
as it were formed into one, having double the num- 
ber of arms, but not differing in any other respect 
from the single polype. 
It must be confessed that what we have already 
related respecting these animals is very extraordi- 
nary ; and yet what we are now going to say is 
still more so, since there is nothing at all analogous 
