54 MARVELS OF POND-LTFE. 



a power of about one hundred linear. When they 

 are sufficently quiet a power of about four hundred 

 may be used with advantage, and Pritchard recom- 

 mends adding a little indigo and carmine to the 

 water, in order to see the cilia more clearly, or 

 rather to render their action more plain. The cilia 

 are disposed lengthwise, and Ehrenberg counted in 

 some rows sixty or seventy of them, making an 

 aggregate of three thousand six hundred and forty 

 organs of motion in one small animated speck. 

 This number seems large, but although we have 

 never performed the feat of counting them, we should 



Paramecium aurelia. 

 A dried specimen shewing the vesicles.— Pritchard. 



have expected it to prove much greater. Unlike 

 most animalcules they are susceptible of being pre- 

 served by drying upon glass, and we subjoin a figure 

 from Pritchard, of one thus treated, in which the 

 star-shaped vesicles are clearly seen. These curious 

 organs communicate with other vessels, and as we 

 have previously stated, are probably connected with 



