HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



151 



had opened to their view a new world, the zoology 

 and botany of which they were never tired of 

 exploring. 



Baker's fecoud part of the "Employment for the 

 Microscope " treats on the various minute forms of 

 animal and vegetable life, and he is much struck 

 with their beauty of form and elegance of "work- 

 manship." He says in his Introduction that 

 " Though everything is alike easy to an Infinite and 

 Almighty being, yet, according to human Compre- 

 hension, it appears wonderful that we find almost 

 without Exception in those Specks of Life, whose 

 Minuteness renders them almost imperceptible to 

 the Eye of Man a greater Number of Members to 

 be put in Motion, more "Wheels and Pullies to be 

 kept going, a greater Variety of Machinery, an 

 Apparatus more Complex and Curious, a Plan 

 seemingly of deeper Contrivance, in short more 

 Elegance and Workmanship (if the Term may be 

 excused) in the Composition, more Beauty and 

 Ornament in the Finishing, than are seen in the 

 enormous Bulk of the Elephant, the Crocodile, and 

 the Whale, compared with which, one would think 

 them no less the Effect of a more exquisite and 

 superior Art than the Movements of a Watch 

 appear to be on Comparison with the Wheels of a 

 Coach or Waggon. These Truths need no Proof 

 to such as are acquainted with the Microscope, 

 however incredible they may seem to others." 



Baker, in common with other observers, con- 

 cluded that those minute forms of life possessed a 

 more complex organization than those which we 

 now call the higher. forms of life. This error was 

 pardonable, as nothing was known of the minute 

 structure of the larger plants and animals; he is 

 more correct in his supposition that though 

 "Glasses discover to us numberless Kinds of 

 living Creatures whose Minuteness renders them 

 absolutely undiscernible by our naked Eyes, and 

 God alone knows how many thousand kinds there 

 may be, still decreasing in Size, which it is im- 

 possible for us to see by any Help whatever. . . . 

 The smallest living Creatures our Instruments can 

 show are those that inhabit the Waters, for though 

 possibly Animalcules no less minute may fly in the 

 Air, or creep upon the Earth, it is scarce possible 

 to bring such to our Examination. . . . And As 

 Names are of the utmost Service to make People 

 understand each other, I hope to be indulged the 

 Liberty of giving such to these hitherto unnoticed 

 Animalcules, as correspond in some manner to 

 their Appearance, even though I may not always 

 have chosen the most proper." 



But, unlike the gardener of Crabbe, he does not 

 call them by high-sounding names : — 



"High-sounding words our worthy gardener gets, 

 And at his club to wondering swains repeats : 

 He then of Rhus and Rhododendron speaks, 

 And Allium calls his onions and his leeks. 



Where Cuckoo-pints and Dandelions sprung 

 (Gross names had they our plainer sires among), 

 There Arums, there Leontoduns we view, 

 And Artemisia grows where Wormwood grew." 



The first chapter is devoted to the description 

 " Of the Hair-Like Insect " ■ — 



" The wonderful Animalcule I am going to describe 

 was, I believe, first taken Notice of by my curious 

 Eriend, Mr. William Arderon, of the City of 

 Norwich* who kindly sent me an Account thereof, 

 together with many thousands of the Creatures 

 themselves, which came to me alive in a Vessel of 

 the same Water they were found in, and lived with 

 me several weeks. 



"This little Animal is extremely slender, and not 

 uncommonly one hundred and fifty times longer 

 than broad. Its Resemblance to an Hair has 

 induced me to eall it the Hair-like Insect. The 

 Body or Middle Part which is nearly strait in 

 some is composed of such parallel Rings as the 

 Windpipe of Land Animals consists of, but seems 

 iu others scaled or rather made up of Pings that 

 obliquely cross each other. Its two Ends are bent 

 or hooked pretty nearly in the same Degree, but in 

 a Direction contrary to each other, and as no Eyes 

 can be discerned, 'tis difficult to judge which is the 

 Head or Tail. Its progressive Motion differs from 

 that of all Animals besides hitherto described, for 

 notwithstanding the Body is composed of many 

 Pings and Joints, it seems unable to bend at all, or 

 move directly forwards, but when it is inclinable to 

 change its Quarters it can move from Right to Left, 

 or Left to Right, and proceed at the same time 

 backwards and forwards obliquely. It has neither 

 Eeet, nor Eins, nor Hairs, but appear perfectly 

 smooth and transparent, with the Head bending one 

 way, and the Tail another, so as to be like a long 

 Italian /, nor is any internal Motion or particularly 

 opake Part to be perceived which may determine 

 one to suppose it the Stomach or other of the 

 Intestines. 



" These Creatures are so small that Millions of 

 Millions might be contained in an Inch Square. 

 They are exceedingly transparent, and of a lively 

 green, but when numbers are brought together they 

 become opake, and lose their green Colour in pro- 



* William Arderon was not a native of Norwich, but 

 came from Yorkshire in the capacity of an officer of excise ; 

 his natural ability soon discovered itself, and introduced him 

 to several Norwich savans, who, it is supposed, in order to 

 retain amongst them so valuable an auxiliary in their pursuits 

 obtained for him the situation of managing clerk at the 

 "New Mills"; through these gentlemen he was introduced 

 to Mr. Baker : he was the author of numerous papers on 

 " Natural History,'' many of which will be found in the 

 Transactions of the Royal Society. The late Dawson Turner, 

 of Yarmouth (who was in possession of his correspondence 

 with Mr. Baker), considered him a remarkable man, and, 

 considering the difficulties he had to struggle with, certainly 

 superior to Gilbert White, of Selborne. He died on the 

 25th of November, 1767, after a long and painful illness, in 

 the sixty-eighth year of his age. 



