IL ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. i4> 



many volvoxes Infinitely more minute ; and each 

 provided with its diaphanous membrane. I have 

 been able to difcern the third generation, but 

 never the other two, though I had recourfe to 

 magnifiers of the highefl power. Perhaps it was 

 not my fortune to recognize them, or they were 

 not vifible in the volvoxes examined, from a dif- 

 ference in the fpecies and fize between them and 

 thofe obferved by other naturalifls ( i ). It is un« 

 doubted that globules within globules are fo 

 many generations included within each other ^ 

 for when my volvoxes had attained a certain ma- 

 turity, the fmaller globuli began to move within 

 the membrane, detached themfelves from it, left 

 the mother, and fwam in the infufion, revolving 

 on their axis, and in this manner paffing along 

 according to the mode peculiar to thefe animals,. 

 "When all had come forth, the common mem- 

 brane, or mother, burft, and diflblved ; and hav- 

 ing loft all motion, I loft fight of it alfo. In the 

 meantime, the new volvoxes increafed, as the in- 

 cluded globules likewife did ; thefe began to 

 move, the common membrane burft, and they 

 fwam about in the infufion like the former. By 



ifolation 



( I ) Muller, who defcribes feveral fpecies, has feen only 

 the young and its offspring in the body of the mother, 

 and that but in a fingle fpecies which he calls w/wox gls' 

 bato:-. 



