ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS', 



145 



Baker, in his Treatife The Micro/cope made Eafj^ 

 fpeaking of the minute and innumerable creatures 

 inhabiting waters, mentions a race of animalcula 

 difcovered by Lceuwenhoeck in the marili lentil^ 

 remarkable for a long tail, with which it attaches 

 itfelf tothe roots of the plant, and a hollow like 

 a bell in the anterior part of the body ; it is alfo 

 charadlerized by a fpontaneous motion, contra<3:- 

 ing and extending the body and tail at pleafure. 



Thefe (ingularities, fo analogous to thofe of my 

 ' bulb animalcula, excited the defire of feeking for 

 what was to me a new kind of animal, to learn 

 whether its multiplication was by natural divifion. 

 But as it often happens, the more one feeks a 

 thing the lefs does he find it j and when leall 

 thinking of it he difcovers it, or rather it feems to. 

 find him ; fo was it with Leeuwenhoeck's animal- 

 cula. When I gave myfelf much trouble and foiici- 

 tude I never was able to difcover them ; and they 

 at length appeared when I was occupied in matters, 

 entirely different. Intently confidering fome tad- 

 poles about the roots of marfh lentils, which had 

 been put into a vafe of water to feed them, and 

 the direft rays of the fun falling on the water, I 

 £aw the roots very diltincily, and diftinguiihed 

 one from the reft by a light fpot of fliining whrte^, 

 furrounding it about the middle of the length. 

 This peculiarity did not make the fmalleft im- 



preffion 



