CILIARY ACTION. 35 



ing one day in his travels to stumble upon a human 

 skeleton, and being induced to contemplate rather 

 more closely than he had ever done before the won- 

 drous mechanism displayed in its construction,, sud- 

 denly ejaculated, "Hie Dei manus videtur \" " Here 

 truly I can trace the hand of God ! ;; There were no 

 microscopes in Galen's time, neither had he ever an 

 opportunity of witnessing ciliary action, or he would 

 hardly, we think, have lived so long and gone so 

 far without recognizing the finger of Omnipotence. 

 " Ciliary action \" exclaims our friend, " pray what is 

 that ? ' and as some of our readers may perhaps feel 

 disposed to make the same inquiry, we will pause a 

 moment to explain the meaning of an expression that 

 must recur continually in future pages. 



On placing a few of the gemmules of a sponge 

 above mentioned, which, in size and shape, might 

 not inaptly be compared to minute pins' -heads, in a 

 watch-glass containing a little sea- water, it will soon 

 become evident, even to the naked eye, that they are 

 able to swim about with considerable facility ; but 

 how they manage to accomplish such a feat is by no 

 means so easily discernible. On examining them, 

 however, with a good microscope, the machinery em- 

 ployed for the purpose becomes revealed to sight; 

 and certainly a spectacle more wonderful imagina- 

 tion scarcely could conceive. Millions of paddles, 

 furiously at work, bestud the surface of these tiny 

 atoms, so rapid in their motion, that the eye almost 

 refuses to perceive their shape ; so manageable, that 

 their action seems directed by one impulse ; and yet 

 so minute, that words in vain attempt to tell their 



