INFUSORIA. 405 



It is not until we view these creatures with a good 

 microscope that we acquire an adequate idea of their 

 beauty : for myself, at least, it was so. I had seen 

 engravings of many of the invisible animalcules, and had 

 read technical descriptions ; but of their brilliant trans- 

 parency, their sudden and sprightly motions, their general 

 elegance and delicacy, and the apparent intelligence with 

 which they are endowed, neither books nor engravings 

 had given me any conception. 



Some of the individuals under our present examination 

 are exhibiting phenomena of no less interest than their 

 form and motions. Some of the stalks are terminated 

 by two vases instead of one, which appear to spring from 

 a common point. These, however, are the result of the 

 spontaneous splitting of one; and in other examples you 

 may see the process in different stages ; or, if your patience 

 endure a couple of hours' watching, you may trace the 

 whole phenomena, as I have done, from the moment 

 when it first becomes perceptible, to its completion in the 

 freedom of one of the newly-formed animalcules. 



For instance, you perceive that one of the bells instead 

 of being vase-shaped has assumed a globular form. By 

 keeping your eye on this for only a few moments, you de- 

 tect a depression forming in the midst of its front outline, 

 which momentarily deepens, until it is manifestly a cleft. 

 The division proceeds downwards, the two halves healing 

 simultaneously, so that they are at all times perfectly 

 smooth and rounded; at length two vases appear, side by 

 side, where a few minutes before there had been but one. 



One of these is destined to be ultimately thrown off, 

 while the other retains sole possession of the stalk. You 

 soon see which it is that is going to emigrate: for, though 

 the two are alike in size, the roving one early closes the 

 mouth of the vase, becoming smooth and globular there, 

 never to open again. The cilia, now therefore become 

 useless, disappear by absorption ; but meanwhile a new 



