100 M. RaspaiVs experiments an the granules of Pollen. 



4fth. Sometimes a certain number of granules put them- 

 selves in motion towards one of the sides of my microscope, 

 but I have only to raise the opposite side a little, to make my 

 little troop retrograde ; and during this retreating movement, 

 they preserve amongst themselves the same distances and the 

 same relations, resembling those automatous regiments which 

 the teeth of the same cylinder cause to pass before the public. 

 When I cease to raise the side of the microscope, all at once 

 and by a sudden motion, but without changing the order of 

 march, they return towards their first direction. But, in ob- 

 serving the monads, it will be advisable to raise or lower one 

 of the sides of the microscope; it never makes them perceptibly 

 change the direction ; they are only seen to struggle in a thou- 

 sand different ways against the force of the current which draws 

 them along. 



5fh. I have seen some of these grains diminish in size, and 

 others disappear all at once from my eyes. 



6th. At other times no granules are found separately, and 

 I obtained in the explosion only a mass resembling the sub- 

 stance of the granules. The pressure of a microscopic point 

 divided the mass into fragments too large and irregular to be 

 assimilated to animalcules. 



7th. The appearance of my little granules reminded me in 

 a manner so striking of little drops of resin, half dissolved 

 in an essential oil, or of oil divided in water, that I could not 

 prevent myself from entertaining serious suspicions of their or- 

 ganization ; for the greater or less similarity of their diameters 

 is not sufficient to alter the opinion of those who have observ- 

 ed in a microscope the effects of the solution of gum resin in 

 alcohol. In proportion as this menstruum evaporates we shall 

 see myriads of globules equal in diameter bubbling up in the 

 liquid which deposits them and divides them while it is evapora- 

 ting. Some authors would not fail to see in these motions of eva- 

 poration something analogous to the Nemazoaires, those mon- 

 strous assemblages whose singular developement would have 

 been inexplicable by any known law, had not accurate obser- 

 vation made them disappear from the pages of science. 



III. In order to satisfy myself of the accuracy of the re- 

 lation which I conceived to exist between the effects of evapo- 



