Essays on the Microscope: Containing a Practical Description of the Most Improved Microscopes, a General History of Insects, etc., etc.Adams, George
Science
Essays on the Microscope: Containing a Practical Description of the Most Improved Microscopes, a General History of Insects, etc., etc.
Adams, George
Insects -- Early works to 1800; Microscopy -- Early works to 1800
When a young polype first begins to shoot, the excrescence terminates in
a point, as at e, Plate XXIV. B. Fig. 24; so that it is rather of a
conical figure, and of a deeper colour than that of the body. This cone
soon becomes truncated, and in a little time appears cylindrical. The
arms then begin to shoot from the anterior end c i. The tail adheres to
the body of the parent, but grows gradually smaller, till at last it
only adheres by a point b, Fig. 23, it is then ready to be separated;
for this purpose the mother and young ones fix themselves to the glass,
or other substance upon which they may be situated. They have then only
to give a sudden jerk, and they are divided from each other. There are
some trifling differences to be observed now and then in their
performing this operation, which it would be too tedious to enumerate
here. A polype, a b, Fig. 20, with a young one, c d, places its body in
an arch of a circle a d b, against the sides of the glass, the young one
being fixed at the top d of the arch, with its head also fixed against
the glass; so that the mother, by contracting the body, and thus
becoming straight, loosens herself from the young one.
The young ones shoot in proportion to the warmth of the weather, and the
nature of the food eaten by the mother; some have been observed to be
perfectly formed in twenty-four hours, while others have required
fifteen days for the same purpose; the first were produced in the midst
of summer, the latter in a cold season.
The tail of the young polype communicates with, and partakes of the food
from the parent in the same manner as its own arms do, and the food lies
in the same manner as in the arms. When this fœtus is furnished with
arms, it catches its prey, swallows, digests, and distributes the juices
thereof even to the parent body; every good is common to each. Here then
we have evident communication between the fœtus and the mother; this
communication was further proved by the following experiment. A large
polype, one of the hydra fusca, was placed on a slip of paper, in a
little water; the middle of the body of the young one was cut, and the
superior part of that end which remained fixed to the parent was found
to be open. The parent polype was then cut on each side of the shoot.
Thus a short cylinder was obtained, which was open at both ends. This
being viewed through a microscope, the light was seen to come through
the side slip, or young one, into the stomach of the old one. For
further conviction, the cylindrical portion was cut lengthways; on
observing these parts, not only the hole t of the communication, Plate
XXIV. B. Fig. 17, was distinctly seen, but one might see through the end
o of the young one. On changing the situation of these two pieces of
prepared polypes, and looking through the opening e, Fig. 18, the
day-light was seen through the hole of communication i.
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