442 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



not occur until tliey have crossed not only oceans, but continents, and thus 

 by the will of the Great Supreme, become disseminated throughout the 

 universe. Naturalists, with untiring labor, have recognized, grouped and 

 delineated, eight hundred different species of animalcules, and become 

 acquainted with their modes of reproduction, habits and forms. One va- 

 riety can change their forms at will, and assume many grotesque shapes ; 

 others shoot up in the form of plants, have round shaped flowers, fringed 

 with hair, and are instinct with life, even to the remotest branch. The 

 Monad is the most minute of all living matter ; five hundred millions may 

 exist in a single drop of water ; the largest ever examined, had only 

 attained the length of the twelve-thousandth part of an inch. In a cubic 

 inch of dirt forty-one millions of distinct animalcules have been estimated 

 to exist. 



By the aid of the microscope naturalists have been able to discover eyes 

 in the entire family of rotatorial animalcules, always supposed to be blind, 

 and thus proving the existence of a nervous system in those atoms of crea- 

 tion. Who can fail, knowing such facts, to be astounded at the amazing 

 perfection the Creator has bestowed upon these minute creatures ! 



They multiply in various ways ; some are brought forth alive, some pro- 

 ceed from eggs, others increase by the growth of buds, issuing from the 

 body of the parent, and become perfect animalcules ; others still divide 

 themselves into several individual beings. A single infusoria was kept in 

 water for eighteen days, during which time it laid four eggs each day, and 

 the young ones when two days old, laid the same number ; in ten days the 

 offspring of this single insect amounted to a million ; in twelve days to six- 

 teen millions. 



There are others that increase much more rapidly. Naturalists have 

 affirmed that the box chain animalcule (Grallionella,) increases in one day 

 to the number of one hundred and forty million millions. When water 

 containing the wheel animalcule evaporates, the creature apparently dies 

 and becomes hard and dry, and may in this state be preserved for many 

 years in sand. When placed in water it revives at once, and swims with 

 its accustomed activity. The most intense poisons mingled with water full 

 of animalcules does not affect them, neither does the cold of the arctic 

 regions-, where they are found alive in solid ice. 



The twilight Monad is only the twenty-four thousandth of an inch long, 

 and a single shot, one-tenth of an inch in diameter, is said to occupy more 

 space than seventeen hundred millions of these living monads. 



In the harbor of Wismar, on the Baltic, there is deposited every season 

 228,854 cubic feet of mud, which accumulation has continued for one hun- 

 dred years ; at this rate 22,885,400 cubic feet— equal to 3,240,000 hundred 

 weight. The compound microscope being brought to bear upon it, an- 

 nounced the fact, that one-quarter of it was composed of living infusoria, 

 and a large portion of the balance of microscopic forms. The farther we 

 progress with the microscope, the more curious and interesting will be the 

 forms that will meet our gaze at every step. 



