134 PALMER : 



and this is the number of times we shall have to enlarge our 

 diatom in order that it shall occupy the same volume as the 

 man. We have now, indeed, such notion as enormous figures 

 may give us, of the exceeding smallness of the diatom. We 

 may further, as a mere matter of curiosity, calculate from 

 this what the rate of progress would be in the man, if he 

 were to go as fast in proportion to his bulk as does the diatom. 

 The latter was found to crawl two inches in an hour. But 

 this is 1/31,680 of a mile. The man should, on the hypo- 

 thesis, go 



I 



X 7,366,071,428,571 = 232,514,881 miles per hour. 



31,680 



This is at the rate of more than a round trip between 

 earth and sun per hour. 



This calculation, like the famous one as to what a man- 

 sized flea should l)e able to do in the matter of jumping, fails 

 to take into account any resistance of the medium traversed, 

 and this is not so fatal to its value. But it also leaves out of 

 the account — and this is of import so far as concerns our 

 object of arriving at the output of energy exhibited by the 

 diatom — all reference to the additional weight to be trans- 

 ported. Here we see at once wh}' it is that energy in propor- 

 tion to bulk is not evidenced in the form of locomotion in the 

 organic world. Yet we are not warranted in saying that the 

 man-sized diatom, because it is just as much heavier than 

 normal as it is larger, would go no more than the original two 

 inches per hour if it remained of the same vigor per cubic 

 inch. This conclusion would be quite absurd. Indeed, we 

 may demonstrate its incorrectness, liacillaria paradoxa grows 

 in colonies of ten to twenty or more individuals, like so many 

 bcjoks in a symmetrical pile. Each diatom of the group is 

 freely movable endwise on e\'ery other with which it comes in 

 contact. The whole colony will contract until it forms a 

 square block, or it will suddenly lengthen out until the indi- 

 viduals only adhere b\- their ends. During this manceuvre, 



