452 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Suppose a man arrives here from Havana, infected at the time with the 

 cholera insect, and brings only one corpuscle on his body, or in his clothes, 

 and spends four days in a foetid atmosphere, congenial to disease, this per- 

 fectly imperceptible corpuscle, can create by its amazing fertility, one hun- 

 dred and eighty billions of microscopic life, within that time. Corpuscles 

 increase in various ways, and among others by voluntar}^ division ; and 

 this characteristic separates plants from animals. It is a fact that gem- 

 mation in plant cells, is similar to the division in animals ; plant cells di- 

 yide by exterior warts, without any internal change. The animal doubles 

 first the inner organs, and decreases externally in size ; self division in 

 them proceeds from the centre to the periphery. 



Microscopic animalculse are always the cause of putrefaction. If you 

 would prove this, place a piece of beef in a dish in any position that will 

 favor putrescence, and you will soon observe under the microscope, an im- 

 mense number of animalcules in it, sometime before smell indicates any 

 change. This may be called the first period of putridity. Twelve hours 

 after, the liquor will turn litmus paper red, when the animalcules will be 

 found quadrupled in number, and from pellicles or eggs, will be discovered 

 floating on the surface of the liquor, and still no unpleasant odour will 

 emit from the mass when meat is in this state. I imagine mankind daily 

 consume in a single meal, billions of monades, as the cook has no way of 

 discovering any thing wrong. At a later period, the microscope indicates 

 detached pieces of animal matters floating in the liquid of the meat, which 

 are nothing more or less than millions of agglomerated animalcules. At 

 this period the odor is slightly unpleasant, but not sufficiently so to be dis- 

 carded by the cook. Shortly after this, the liquid becomes foetid, and ani- 

 malcules are discovered congregated together in masses containing bil- 

 lions. 



Microscopic investigations have revealed to us, that the orange, brown, 

 blood red, and rose colors, observed in our beautiful agates, are agglome- 

 rated animalcules, distributed through these siliceous compounds, according 

 to circumstances. 



I believe that the hair on human heads, is inhabited by microscopic ani- 

 mals, so minute, as to remain unscathed by the comb. I have observed 

 on two occasions, with the naked eye, an elongated white excrescence, near 

 the root of a hair, on two difi'erent heads, and on obtaining them from the 

 individuals, submitted them severally to the microscope, and to my amaze- 

 ment, found them to be most beautifully constructed nests, filled to reple- 

 tion with eggs. 



Last summer I saw a small fly alight upon the back of a spider, and 

 after remaining for a few seconds it departed. I caught the spider, but 

 could only perceive a minute wound where the fly had rested ; it was placed 

 in a bottle, and in a short time became the residence of a larva, which ul- 

 timately assumed the pupa form, at which period the spider died, and a 

 v/orm proceeded from its carcass, to the side of the bottle, and there in- 

 closed itself in a transparent silk covering, which reflected a metallic lus- 



