STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



119 



Mark well, as we proceed, the steps of progress in the life of our 

 Eritozoan. First, it is an ovum, or egg; then a club-shaped ciliated 

 pseudo-larva, or larva of the first stage (pointing to illustration) ; then a 

 Redia, or larva of the second stage (calling attention to diagrams); then 

 from this stage, from the one individual are developed numerous Circarice, 

 or larvae of the third stage (pointing to the drawing). Our single indi- 

 vidual has now multiplied itself before it has attained its growth, or 

 performed the cycle of its life-history. 



These Circarite, or larvae of the third stage, swim freely and inde- 

 pendently through the water by means of their tails. After enjoying 

 this free life for a time, they penetrate into the body of some mollusk, 

 where they again change form and become cysis or bladder-worms, some- 

 what similar to those which form the measles in the hog; this is their 

 fourth larval stage. Here their development must cease unless they are 

 taken into the stomach of some water-bird. If the mollusk is found and 

 swallowed by some water-bird, the cyst-wonn which it contains loses the 

 bladder portion and the remaining part, assumes at length the perfect 

 form of the original parent, and thus is completed the cycle of the life- 

 history of the animal. If Nature appeared to be sporting with her power 

 to diversify life-histories in producing the Stylops, in the case now before 

 us she seems desirous of astonishing us with an almost wanton display of 

 that power. Such a paradox does she present that our grammar fails to 

 furnish us with appropriate and applicable terms to use in reference 

 thereto. For if we say it, this will only apply to a part of the life-history 

 of the creature, for ere its career closes it becomes they or them. 



Is it possible to imagine a more remarkable life-history than this ? Not 

 only are its varied forms and modes of life calculated to surprise us, but 

 when at one of the intermediate stages the larva multiplies itself so that 

 at the end of one generation one tgg has produced several perfect indi- 

 viduals, our ideas of individual life seem to be wholly contradicted. It 

 is the same as though the chick from one egg should become an entire 

 brood of perfect hens. 



Verily, truth is stranger than fiction; for neither the Arabian Nights, 

 Tales of a Grandfather or Yule-tide stories present anything stranger 

 than this. 



It is a mystery we cannot solve, that life even in the perfect insect 

 or other animal should divide itself, as it often does to enter the new 

 channels represented by the numerous eggs deposited. But when we see 

 a Ikrval form breaking up into living fragments, each to be perfected by a 

 separate individual life, the mystery becomes still more profound. 



Life is a strange workman; all around us and within us, ever busy 

 tearing down and building up new forms, and yet forever invisible; 

 equally at home in the huge elephant and the smallest form the micro- 

 scope can reveal. 



Shall we say it is a force? Admit it. But now the problem is only 

 rendered more complex, for it is very difficult, if indeed possible, to give 

 a definition of force. In fact, force is a curious thing any way ; and 

 somehow I am always imagining there is something behind it pushing it 



