3.84 Ari^EAItANCES OBSERVED IN TI4E 



Perhaps many other objections may be opposed to the sup- 

 position ofanimalcular hie in these bodies ; and yet the strong. 

 eixpreision of animation, if I may so term it, and air of seeming 

 design, with which the varying motions, sometimes slow, and 

 sometimes rapid, are performed, and the difficulty of otherwise 

 accounting for their motion, whether real or apparent, lead, 

 upon the whole, I think, to this supposition, not as one which 

 we can admit with confidence, but as the least improhablc con- 

 jecture, which, in the present limited state of our knowledge,, 

 we can venture to form.. 



. In managing the microscope, iBe reflector must not be used ; 

 for when a strong light is transmitted through the fluid, the 

 spicula become invisible, or are only imperfectly seen. The 

 fluid, therefore, containing them, should be placed upon sorae- 

 thino' of a dark colour, as a piece of glass, with its underside 

 blackened ; and, the stronger the light which can be thrown 

 upon the surface, the better ; hence tBey appear uncommonly 

 brilliant and distinct when placed in the sunshine; and, iu this 

 situation, with a high magnifier, they present one of the most 

 brilhant and lively microscopic objects that can be imagined ; 

 each spiculum seems like a long bar of light, constantly twink- 

 ling, with a reflection almost too strong for the eye to sustain. 

 They may be also well seen i« a strong candle light, so mana- 

 ged, that it may fall upon the surface. 



Perhaps this phsenomenon may have been already, pointed 

 out; but it is not noticed by Adam, Cuviee^ Blumenbach, or. 

 ^y author with whom I am acquainted. 



Since 



