318 ANNIAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



male is to tho fi-malo in woiirht as 1 to 125, soniotinics as 1 to 150. 

 He seems to liave <»i)ly a freiierative luiutioii, and she eanies him 

 about on her sliouhler. Tliey eiianfje thi'ir sl<iii sirangely ; the 

 hard head and thorax divide evenly aeross tiio front; tlie soft 

 body is dratrj^ed out thioui^di two wounds wliieh one n)igiit say 

 were aeross tiu' shoulders. For some days it eats voraeiously and 

 becomes slu^^rish. The top of the head snaps up ; tho head shows 

 and enlar<;es ; it splits aeross the shoulders ; the abdomen is drag- 

 fr<'d throu^rh ; th(^ old skin is ofl", but it still holds the jaws, i)a]pi, 

 and legs. This happens slowl^' at lirst, init he had luul spiders pull 

 their own legs oil". They hung thirty minutes to harden their 

 membranes. 



MICROSCOPIC LIFE. 



Sliall wc consider the universe more wonderful from its vast- 

 ness, or its array of the minute? Shall we consider the far-off 

 orb, whose light is tliousands of years in traversing the s])ace 

 Avhiih separates it from our vision, a more impressive [)henomenoa 

 than the monad, five hundred millions of whieh may exist in a 

 drop of water? Shall we consider the revelations of the tele- 

 scope of the immeasurably great, more glorious evidence of the 

 divine order, than those of the microscope of the immeasurably 

 little? Th(! terms great and small, in this world we inhai>it, are 

 indeed relative, and we grievously err in considering that posi- 

 tively little whiih seems so to our relative forms of percejition. 



Under the highest magnilying powers of the microscope we 

 still perceive organized beings possessed of life. Wi; find them 

 everywhere, in our bodies, our food, our water, our flowers, in 

 our gardens, in the air we breathe, in snow and in ice. "In 

 vain," says Bory St. Vincent, " has matter been considered as 

 eminently brute, without life, ^lauy observations prove that if it 

 is not all active by its very nature, a part of it is essentially so, 

 and the presence of this, operating according to certain laws, is 

 able to produce life in an agglomeration of the molecules; and 

 since these laws will always be imperfectly known, it will, at 

 least, be rash to maintain that an infinite intelligence did not 

 impose them, since the}- are manifested by their results." 



Ehrenberg found a few species of infusoria in the subterranean 

 water of mines ; he met with several in some silver mines in 

 Kussia, at the depth of fifty-six fathoms below the surface ; but 

 he never detected them in atmospheric water, such as dew. He 

 also discovered that the yellow dryfog — which has often been 

 attril)uted to the tails of comets, and so alluded to by Humboldt 

 and Arago — observed from time to time advancing from the Cape 

 Vei-de islands towards the east, covering parts of North Africa, 

 Italy, and Central Eui'ope, is composed of mjTiads of silieious 

 animalcula, carried away by the trade winds. Similar animaleula 

 have been found in fixed or floating icebei'gs at twelve degrees 

 north latitude, while numerous foi'ms of the same grouji have been 

 detected in hot mineral springs. 



If a few flower-stalks or a handful of green leaves be placed in 

 a glass of water, and allowed to remain there from two to four 



