A NIGHT WITH A MICROSCOPE. 99 
Saturn’s Ring, in November last, when they should have been 
(theoretically) invisible. The question naturally follows what 
was the cause? 
A NicHT wiTtH a Microscope. By Mr T. T. OVENS. 
In his preliminary remarks Mr Ovens observed that people 
were so accustomed to regard with admiration and wonder the 
mighty and impressive works of nature that they were apt to 
treat as insignificant her elaborations in minutiz. ‘Time would 
not permit him to deal with a very large variety of subjects, 
although every mote that danced in the sunbeam—every particle 
of trampled dust—contained inexhaustible treasure of knowledge 
and instruction. He would first centre their attention to a view 
of the Flea of Man, which, though not very elegant in the 
zesthetic sense, was beautifully and perfectly formed for the life 
it had to lead. They would notice the length and development 
of the hind legs which enabled the insect to take immense leaps. 
Indeed were man endowed with the corresponding muscular 
power he could without difficulty bound over Criffel in three 
strides. The next specimen dealt with was a female flea, and 
it was noticeable that while the female was much larger than 
the male, it was by no means prettier. After mentioning the 
flea‘of a mole which, he said, was different from other insects 
inasmuch as it lived mostly under ground and had no eyes, 
these not being necessary, Mr Ovens went on to deal with the 
proboscis of the Blow Fly. They had all observed the house 
fly on the edge of the sugar basin, and dipping its trunk which, 
to the naked eye, looked very much like a bent bit of wire with 
a pad at the end. But the organ was most complicated and 
beautiful. The most wonderful thing about the organ was the 
system of half rings forming a series of tubes in the substance 
of the lobes and acting as connected channels, up which the 
food of the fly was conveyed to the mouth. Not less interesting 
was the eye of the fly. Each one of the tiny spaces was a 
distinct eye in itself, but as it had only a limited range of vision 
it seemed that nature had compensated the want by providing 
such a number of eyes as occupied nearly all the surface of the 
head. The house fly had about 4000 eye facets, but the 
dragon fly had at least 24,000. | Another most remarkable part 
