THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 13 



which they are seen varying in a thousand ways. Some- 

 times they extend them to an immense length, sometimes 

 they withdraw them entirely. They spread them out sep- 

 arately, join them together, or entwine them like the locks 

 of a Gorgon. 



The microscopic world also has its extremes. There is 

 as wide a distance between the size of its tiniest repre- 

 sentative, the Monad, and that of one of its largest, the 

 hooded Colpodos, as there is between a beetle and an ele- 

 phant. 



Nothing is more marvellous than the organization of these 

 invisible beings, and if attentive observations had not 

 placed the facts beyond doubt, people might have been 

 tempted to think that the accounts given by naturalists 

 were pieces of romance or else barefaced lies. 



A single Microzoon has, so to speak, no weight ; placed 

 in the most sensitive balance it does not impart to it the 

 slightest oscillation. The whale, on the other hand, attains 

 a length of 100 feet and a weight of 200 tons, more than 

 the weight of an army of 3000 men ; and yet the pro- 

 fusion of vital apparatus in the Microzoa sometimes exceeds 

 that which is seen in these large animals, and in many 

 others. There are some which possess fifteen to twenty 

 stomachs, or even more. In addition there is, in some In- 

 fusoria, a curious mechanism appended to this superabun- 

 dance of organs, one of the stomachs being furnished 

 with teeth of extreme delicacy, which can be seen through 

 the transparent body moving and crushing the food. 



Notwithstanding the extreme minuteness of these crea- 

 tures, which remained unknown through so many ages, na- 



