Jan. 1, 1869.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE -GOSSIP. 



yellow which form the green of the leaves, and in 

 the red of the fruit or russet of the bark. Just so 

 with the fossil vegetation termed coal. The very- 

 aniline colours which are obtained from coal tar are 

 nothing more or less than the restoration of the 

 primary colours which the ancient vegetation stored 

 up from the light ! Such is a portion of my history, 

 briefly sketched; but the broad traces of design 

 manifested in my preparation are too palpable to be 

 overlooked. The age in which I was born was a 

 special one, like to none other which went before or 

 came after ; and it is to me that modern progress is 

 indebted. In my mass is stored up a . force that 

 saves the wear and tear of human muscle and sinew, 

 that does away with the fearful toil which makes 

 simple slaves of men, and enables them to gain 

 daily bread by easier means. But through the 

 vast ages during which I have been silently stowed 

 away, plutonic disturbances have repeatedly broken 

 through and cracked the solid strata, and have thus 

 brought them to the surface to enable men to work 

 the coal they contain. Meantime life in its manifold 

 phases has never once been absent ; whilst its up- 

 ward progression culminated in a being endowed 

 with moral and mental as well as physical perfec- 

 tions, and it was for him and his kind that I was 

 specially prepared, to surround him with the means 

 of social happiness and comfort, and to enable him 

 to rise higher in the scale of intellectual being. 



CHEYLETL* 



THESE arachnids, some species of which, ac- 

 cording to the " Micrographic Dictionary," are 

 found in books and museums, are thus described in 

 that work: — 



"Rostrum prominent, palpi thick, resembling 

 arms, and falciform at the ends, antennal forceps 

 (mandibles?) didactylous."t 



My acquaintance with them began in the early 

 part of December 1866, when I was searching in a 

 cellar for microscopic curiosities, chiefly Podurae. 

 To the naked eye they appeared as little orange- 

 coloured mites % on the surface of the damp wood 

 and amid the spiders' webs, &c.§ A lens revealed 

 something of their outline, and I thought I recog- 

 nized certain characteristics of the creature so 

 ably described by Mr. Richard Beck in the Journal 

 of Microscopical \Science as "a new species of 

 acarus," whose agamic reproduction offered an 

 interesting field for study. Accordingly I eagerly 

 collected all the specimens I could, amounting to 

 about eight, and prepared to watch them in confine- 

 ment. Like Mr. Beck, I soon found that the 

 Cheyletus was partial to a diet of cheese-mites ; so 



* Read at the Quekett Microscopical Club, 23 Oct., 1868. 

 f Micrographic Dictionary. J Possibly the species is new. 

 § [Cheyletus venustissimus (Koch.) is an orange species 

 found in stables, &c, which this somewhat resembles. — Ed.] 



in a supply of these my captives were speedily 

 indulged. After coursing round and round their 

 prisons, seeking in vain for a means of escape, the 

 Cheyleti at last settled down to a quiet life, dividing 

 their time between satisfying their appetites and 

 laying eggs. Both these processes were extremely 

 curious, and displayed a degree of intelligence 

 which to me seemed surprising in so minute a 

 creature. The hungry Cheyletus would start forth 

 from its hiding-place in the cell, the first pair of 

 legs (which, by the way, in some species are never 

 used to walk upon) extended as if groping. As I 

 cannot discover any eyes in the creature, I am led 

 to conclude that this is the sole function of the first 

 pair of legs. Their branched structure favours this 

 inference. By-and-by, after poking them into 

 various holes and corners, they would touch a 



Fig. 1, Cheyletus, x 30. 



moving cheese-mite ; I say moving, because if the 

 cheese-mite remained still, it seemed to escape the 

 notice of the Cheyletus altogether, even though it 

 were repeatedly touched by these groping organs. 

 But if it moved, the Cheyletus actively turned itself 

 in that direction, placing its head at right angles to 

 the cheese-mite's body, and lowering it towards the 

 mite's legs ; then it suddenly seized hold of a leg 

 with the mandibles and falces, the former piercing, 

 and the latter holding it steady. Having made an 

 aperture in the skin of the mite, the Cheyletus pro- 

 ceeded to suck into its own body the contents of 

 that of its prey. With a two-third inch objective 

 the passage of the fluids by constant jerks down the 

 leg of the mite, and into the Cheyletus could be 

 clearly seen. Unless greatly disturbed, it would not 

 relinquish its hold till its appetite was satisfied, but 

 it would carry or drag the mite with it as it retired 

 from suspected danger. Whether the bite of the 

 Cheyletus is venomous to the cheese-mite, is an 

 open question— Mr. Beck thinks it is venomous. 

 Anyhow, the mite ceases to move in about a second 

 after it is bitten, doubling up its legs immediately, 



