HARDWICKE'S SC IEN CE-GOS SI P. 



101 



Having ensconced itself bodily, the jigger proceeds 

 to increase and multiply ; the small dark point 

 develops to the size of a pea, and can move no 

 more. The light-coloured bag is enormously dis- 

 tended with eggs of a slight yellow tint, and after 

 producing her fine family, the parent departs this 

 life. 



"The small livid point, which appears about the 

 nails, is generally accompanied by a certain amount 

 of titillation, which old stagers enjoy; they describe 

 it as sui generis, and make it almost deserve the 

 name of a new pleasure. Men with tender skins 

 easily feel the bite, and remove the biter before it 

 can penetrate. They then send for a negro, always 

 the best practitioner, and he proceeds to extract 

 the intruder with a pin, in preference to a needle. 

 Should the sac be burst, and the fragments not be 

 all extracted, the place festers, and a bad sore is the 

 result. Some sufferers have had to wear slippers, 

 and have walked lame for weeks. The wound is 

 finally cicatrized with some light alkali, — even snuff 

 and cigar ashes are used, and a little arnica com- 

 pletes the cure." 



And now, for the present, we take our leave of 

 the fleas. A little running gossip on some of the 

 romance of the subject may serve to put us in 

 better humour for such of the realities as it may be 

 our fortune to experience. It by no means follows 

 that we are disposed to accept all the romance as 

 fact, but it will not be difficult for each to eliminate 

 for himself the real from the ideal. Since the 

 attention of microscopists is likely to be directed 

 more than hitherto to these lively little creatures, 

 such an episode as the present will not be alto- 

 gether out of place. Mr. Furlonge's paper, and 

 Mr. Lowne's animadversions, are enough to con- 

 vince us that there is somewhat more to be learnt 

 about such a common object as a Elea. 



A RAMBLE BY THE SEA-SHORE. 



" Ocean of wonders! could I pierce thy depths, 

 And dive into thy dark and azure breast, 

 Below, below, far, far, and far below, 

 Amid shells, seaweed, and cerulean gleams, 

 What sights should I behold ! " 



~DUT "A Ramble by the Sea-shore" is the 

 -"-* subject given, and not a dive beneath its 

 green billows, into Ocean's richly-jewelled caverns ; 

 therefore I must confine myself to a description of 

 some of the varied objects of interest which are to 

 be met with along the coast, and commence with the 

 lowest order of all bearing an appearance of animal 

 life, gradually proceeding to furnish, as well as the 

 limits of this article will permit me to do so, an 

 account of a few of the higher forms, found on the 

 beach between high and low-water mark. 



The very lowest grade of animal life, Protozoa, 

 are so closely allied to the vegetable, that it be- 



comes a difficult point in some cases to decide 

 to which kingdom the object belongs. The com- 

 mon sponge is a member of the Protozoa family, and 

 although the sponge of commerce comes from the 

 rocks of the Mediterranean, there are some sixty 

 odd distinct species met with in the streams and on 

 the shores of our native land. Witness the yellow 

 fungus-like substances we find on the rocks which 

 are left bare by the receding tide, such as the 

 "Crumb of Bread" Sponge, and others. 



Should these " cradles of organic life " have 

 escaped the attention of the ordinary rambler by 

 the sea-shore, the sponge we are in the habit of 

 using must be familiar to all, though all may not 

 know that the nice soft article they wash with is 

 the skeleton of what was once a real living 

 creature. 



Living sponges possess the power of continuous 

 action. Take a live specimen, and watch it care- 

 fully, and you will very soon see that a constant 

 current of water flows at the will of the animal 

 through its ducts. It has two sets of ducts, or 

 canals ; one for receiving the fluid into its interior, 

 the other for discharging it; thus affording evi- 

 dence of a most perfect system of circulation, and 

 so demonstrating the presence of a vital principle. 



Many people will argue that a sponge does not 

 evince the power of sensation. Tear it open, burn 

 it with red-hot irons, and it will not, I grant you, 

 show a trace of feeling; nevertheless, the smell of 

 ammonia given out by burnt sponge betrays its 

 animal nature. 



The curious way in which sponges reproduce their 

 young is remarkable. You will see, at certain sea- 

 sons of the year, small yellow granules fixed in the 

 ducts of the sponge, as these grow larger they get 

 freed from their slimy bed, and are directly carried 

 off by the flowing current of water, each young 

 sponge being provided with a set of thread-like 

 appendages, which are wisely intended to serve a 

 double purpose. They act in the first place as oars, 

 by means of which the small fry move about until 

 they meet with a suitable resting-place, and then 

 they make good anchors. 



Immediately the juvenile sponge finds a desirable 

 rock, it fastens itself on to it by means of these 

 threads, and an adhesive substance which it throws 

 out, and then, having no further use for its cilia, 

 quietly absorbs them ; for the sponge, unlike most 

 seaside visitors, never changes its lodgings. It 

 stops in the place it first selects, and quickly 

 establishes a home of its own. 



We should not fail to notice how, in the struc- 

 ture and history of so insignificant an atom as the 

 sponge, our all-wise Creator has displayed his pro- 

 vidential care by gifting such helpless little animals 

 with the power of locomotion at the exact time 

 they need it ; a power cut off from the adult sponge 

 as soon as its aid is no longer required. 



