Nature's Enigma: The Problem of the Polyp in the Letters of Bonnet, Trembley and Reaumur, Memoirs, American Philosophical Society (vol. 174)

Two striking discoveries made 1740 a turning point in the history of 18th—century biology. Charles Bonnet established that aphids could reproduce without male fertilization. Shortly afterwards Abraham Trembley proved that a tiny aquatic animal, the fresh water polyp, or hydra, could regenerate from cuttings like some plants. The discovery of the polyp was important because of the disturbing metaphysical issues that it raised. In their letters written during the decade of the 1740s to Reaumu...