AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 443 



Professor Kelland, of Paris, has executed some extraordinary micro- 

 scopic writing, on a spot the size of a pin head. The Professor shows, by 

 means of powerful microscopes, several specimens of distinct and beautiful 

 writing, one of them containing the whole of the Lord's Prayer, executed 

 within this small compass. Layard's last work on Nineveh, shows that the 

 national records of Assyria, were written on sf[uare bricks, in characters 

 so small as to be scarcely legible without a microscope ; and that a micros- 

 cope was actually found in the ruins. 



The evidence of microscopic life is not confined to the earth's surface. 

 The same formation of rocks from the siliceous or calcareous shells of ani- 

 malcules which is seen in the chalk formation of Europe, occurs also on the 

 most gigantic scale, in East and West Africa, Asia, North America, and 

 Russia; demonstrating that microscopic life in the formation of the earth, 

 has been in the hands of the Deity a most important agent, and has pro- 

 duced the following remarkable results, to wit : That microscopic life, and 

 the forms which constitute masses of rock and earth, exist precisely in the 

 same manner throughout the whole surface of the earth, in all climates, 

 zones, and situations — in low valleys, on high mountains, at the bottom of 

 all seas, oceans, and rivers ; and what is very extraordinary, both those of 

 vegetable and animal origin, present a perfect resemblance in characters, 

 whether found in Europe, or this country, and without regard to the Fauna 

 and Flora of the localities. The Navicula, Himantidum arcus, Pinnularia 

 viridis, and Eunotia amphioxys, appear to be exceedingly important as far 

 as the econoiiiy of nature is concerned. The constituents of their bodies 

 and shells are principally silica, carbon, lime, iron, manganese, and alu- 

 mina, united with silica. Iron abounds in the minutest animalcules, and 

 appears to be combined mechanically. The development of organic life 

 exerts a great and important influence upon the earth's surface, especially 

 upon the formation of humus in the valleys. 



Microscopic life is not confined to the surface of the earth, but is found 

 on a gigantic scale in the chalk formations of Europe, on the mountains in 

 Africa, and under the coal formations in Russia, and different parts of the 

 United States. At Richmond, Virginia, there is an infusorial strata twenty 

 feet deep ; and at Berlin, in Prussia, sixty feet in depth, endangering the 

 solidity of buildings above it. In Bilin, in Bohemia, a series of slate, strata, 

 fourteen feet thick, has been examined with the microscope, and proved to 

 contain by estimation, forty thousand millions of distinct organic forms in 

 a cubic inch weighing 220 grains. 



The microscope has proved that coal is of vegetable origin. In an ex- 

 amination of slices of polished Newcastle coal, by means of transmitted 

 light, cellular structure, or vegetable cells, which were supposed to contain 

 the oil and gas of the coal were found, and in specimens of anthi-acite coal 

 these cells were empty. Upon examining the ashes of coal, abundant traces 

 of vegetable structure were discovered, consisting of woody fibre imbedded 

 in tissue of plants, which favors the idea that coal was formed of the plants 

 growing on the spot, and not by drifting, as is usually supposed. The mi- 



