He was related to Charles Bonnet, with whom he corresponded regularly, and befriended with René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (1683–1757) and Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729–1799).

Trembley acted as tutor to the two children of Count Willem Bentinck van Rhoon (1704–1774), a prominent Dutch politician at the time.

[3] While Trembley thought he had discovered a new species, Leeuwenhoek had in fact first published on Hydra in a 1702–1703 volume of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, describing them as a type of "animalculum".

[4] Trembley's findings were published in a groundbreaking book in 1744, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire d'un genre de polypes d'eau douce, Gebr.

His discoveries led to his membership of the prestigious Royal Society in London and a correspondent member of the académie des sciences in France.