f it was presented to it. For in general it would
seem, that food of a more stimulating kind, the honey of vegetables instead
of their leaves, was necessary for the purpose of the seminal reproduction
of these animals, exactly similar to what happens in vegetables; in these
the juices of the earth are sufficient for their purpose of reproduction by
buds or bulbs; in which the new plant seems to be formed by irritative
motions, like the growth of their other parts, as their leaves or roots;
but for the purpose of seminal or amatorial reproduction, where sensation
is required, a more stimulating food becomes necessary for the anther, and
stigma; and this food is honey; as explained in Sect. XIII. on Vegetable
Animation.

The gnat and the tadpole resemble each other in their change from natant
animals with gills into aerial animals with lungs; and in their change of
the element in which they live; and probably of the food, with which they
are supported; and lastly, with their acquiring in their new state the
difference of sex, and the organs of seminal or amatorial reproduction.
While the polypus, who is their companion in their former state of life,
not being allowed to change his form and element, can only propagate like
vegetable buds by the same kind of irritative motions, which produces the
growth of his own body, without the seminal or amatorial propagation, which
requires sensation; and which in gnats and tadpoles seems to require a
change both of food and of respiration.

From hence I conclude, that with the acquisition of new parts, new
sensations, and new desires, as well as new powers, are produced; and this
by accretion to the old ones, and not by distention of them. And finally,
that the most essential parts of the system, as the brain for the purpose
of distributing the power of life, and the placenta for the purpose of
oxygenating the blood, and the additional absorbent vessels for the purpose
of acquiring aliment, are first formed by the irritations above mentioned,
and by the pleasurable sensations attending those irritations, and by the
exertions in consequence of painful sensations, similar to those of hunger
and suffocation. After these an apparatus of limbs for future uses, or for
the purpose of moving the body in its present natant state, and of lungs
for future respiration, and of testes for future reproduction, are formed
by the irritations and sensations, and consequent exertions of the parts
previ