66 HISTORY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES, 
little on any kindred object which, while it delights the eye, 
may improve the heart. Had not the telescope been in- 
vented, the milky way might still have been thought a 
white fleecy cloud spread over a portion of the heavens, in- 
stead of bright worlds, not placed in close proximity, but 
farther removed from each other than our sun is from our 
‘earth, and yet as numerous as the sand on the sea-shore. 
And had not the microscope been invented, our little cili- 
ated polypes might have lived and died till time was no 
more, without one human being ever dreaming that they 
were living creatures, or, at all events, without one human 
eye living capable of seeing a structure which, when seen 
by lenticular aid, constrains us to exclaim, How beautiful ! 
how wonderful ! 
There are various kinds of ciliated polypes; but we mean 
to confine our attention to that section of them to which 
Lamarck has given the name of Vorticella, and only to a 
few of these, for he has described no less than twenty-eight 
species. According to his description, they are very minute, 
gelatinous, and transparent, having no tentacula, but having 
around the mouth ez/ia, which do not lay hold of their 
prey, but which, by an oscillating or rotatory motion of 
inexpressible rapidity, cause the water containing the ani- 
