56 THE WORLD OF THE SEA. 
them animated bag-pipes, tufted hens, and gold and silver fish! 
We now know that infusoria are neither so complicated as some 
authors have asserted, nor yet so simple as others have imagined. 
It is to the learned Berlin professor, Ehrenberg, and latterly to” 
MM. de Siebold, Claparede, Lachmann, Lieberkiihn, and Balbiani, 
that we owe the most complete and interesting works in the pos- 
session of science upon these lovely dwarfs of nature, these atoms 
of existence. 
The infusoria are furnished on all parts of their bodies with 
vibratory cilia, hair-like prominences, not all of the same thickness, 
PARAMECIUM BURSARIA. VOLVOCE#. 
neither of the same length. They are ever in motion, thus causing 
currents in the water which lead the organic particles on which they 
subsist to the entrance of their digestive apparatus. These cilia not 
only serve as the providers of their food, but at the same time they 
seem to be their organs of respiration and of locomotion. The 
infusoria do not possess members in the usual sense of the term ; 
some, however, have tails. These miniature animals swim as fish, 
elide like serpents, and twist like worms. 
The Volvocee roll round, constantly revolving round their cen- 
ehtly sloping, smooth sur- 
tres, like a ball running about on a slig 
face. The smallest creature which moves, as well as the smallest 
flower which blooms, awakens within us feelings of surprise and 
joy. We are mute with astonishment and can but dream in our 
wonder, 
