L ANIMALGULA OF INFUSIONS. 15^ 



lows US to fee the anlmalcula, whofe motion con-i 

 tinues after being fwallowed ( i ). 



All the divifions may be feen in every feafon, 

 even the coldeft and moll rigorous. Heat as 

 much promotes it as it is retarded by cold : and 

 we may alTert, that the time required for divifion 

 is nearly in proportion to the hest of the atmo- 

 fphere. In the niddle of wi:i.':er, it takes many 

 hours : in fitring and au^'umn, it is fooner per-^ 

 formed : and iinillies \ ery foon in fummer, eipe- 

 cially if great hea's prevail. Sometimes lefs than 

 a quarter of an hour is then fufficient from the 

 beginning to endre completion. Ihis is one 

 chief reafon why fummer infufions are n.iich 

 fooner peopled than winter ones. 



Whoever wifhes to employ himielf with thefe 

 DJrious obfervations, and the fiUgular modes of 



niultipli» 



( I ) It is fmgular, that Muller fhould deny that animalcu- 

 la prey on each other. Some fpecies he fays prefer benig a- 

 xnong the particles of dull, dnimal and vegetable fragments, 

 and feem to take pleafure in gnawing them ; but he can ea- 

 sily fuppofe, that water alone may be their only nutri- 

 ment, as he has feen the life of large animals, fuch as Hy- 

 drachnae or Entomoftraca, fupported by water, Praefaf, 

 p. 12,1 3. However, he gives the figure of an animalcvLijg 

 containing one devoured, p. 165. — T, ^--■^1' 



