104 DROPS OF WATER. 



flexible, and the chains move like a snake : I 

 have seen vast numbers in water, in which a few 

 leaves had been steeped. In another genus, Spi- 

 rillum, the threads resemble a corkscrew, and 

 have a brisk, lively motion ; they are found in 

 stagnant water. Some other genera are too 

 obscure to mention. 



The family Asiasicea has the power of changing 

 the form of the body at pleasure. The eye, in all 

 the genera, is very conspicuous, excepting in 

 the genus Astasia, in which the species have no 

 eyes. A, licematodes (Drop II. fig. 9) contracts 

 and dilates itself in a curious way ; it is first 

 green, and afterwards becomes of a blood-red 

 colour. Even these little creatures have been a 

 cause of terror to the superstitious, for they in- 



