In 



water 



136 l^atural History of the Ocean, §^c. 



for counting this number. Allowing that one person could 

 count a milHon in seven days, which is barely possible, it 

 would have required that 80,000 persons should have start- 

 ed at the creation of the world, to complete the enumeration 

 at the present time, (1820.) (Account of the arctic regions, 

 VoL II. p. 179. 



examining the colouring matter of a yellowish green 

 , he found it to be animalcules — ^' Some advancing af 

 the rate of jj^xh of an inch in a second, others spining round 

 with great celerity. But the progressive motion of the 

 most active, however distinct and rapid, it appeared under 

 a high magnifying power, did not in reality exceed an inch 

 in three minutes* At this rate It would require one hundred 

 and fifty-one days to travel a nautical mile. A condor, it is 

 generally believed, could fly round the globe at the equator, 

 in a week; these animalcules, in still water, would not ac- 

 complish the same in less than 8955 years. 



The vastness of their numbers, and their exceeding mi- 

 nuteness are circumstances of uncommon interest. In a 

 drop of water, examined by a power of 23,224 (magnified 



superfices) there were fifty in number, on an average, in 

 each square of the micrometer glass, of ^|^th of an inch in 

 diameter : and as a drop occupied a circle on a pane of glass 

 containing 529 of these squares, there must have been in 

 this single drop of water, about 26,450 of these animalcules. 

 Hence reckoning sixty drops to a dram, there would be in a 

 gallon of water, a number exceeding by one half, the amount 

 of the population of the whole globe* The diameter of the 

 largest of these animalcules, was only gjiVoth of an inch 

 and many only ^ ^Voth of an inch. The army which Buon^ 

 aparte led into, Russia, in 1812, estimated at 500,000 men, 

 tirould have extended, in a double row, or two men abreast; 

 with two feet three inches for each pair of men, a distance 

 of I06| English miles. The same number of these ani- 

 malcules, arranged in a similar way, but touching each oth- 

 er, would only reach 5 feet 2i inches ! 



A whale requires a sea, an ocean to sport in : about 

 150,000,000 of these animalcules would have abundant 

 room in a tumbler of water. 



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