MORE ABOUT WHEEL ANIMALCULES 167 



weapons, such as teeth and horns. He entirely dominates 

 and controls the female, or a whole company of females, 

 and in no case is there equality of the sexes, or any 

 approach to it, still less inferiority of the male. It is, 

 perhaps, a question whether "by taking thought" this 

 natural inferiority of the mammalian female can be 

 changed. 



The survival of Rotifers, especially of a pink-coloured 

 species (called Philodina roseola), after long drying or 

 " desiccation," has been experimentally studied. It is 

 found that if the water in which some are swimming is 

 placed in a watch-glass and allowed to dry up rapidly 

 the Rotifers are killed, none reappear when after a few 

 hours fresh water is poured into the watch-glass. But if 

 a few grains of sand or particles of moss are present from 

 the first in the water the final drying up takes place more 

 slowly and the Rotifers find their way between the shelter- 

 ing fragments, where the water remains long enough to 

 give them time to form a little gelatinous case, each for 

 itself. When thus encased they survive, motionless, for 

 months. The experiment has often been made, and is 

 not in doubt. According to trustworthy statements, 

 Philodina can thus survive even for so long as five years. 

 The processes of life are arrested, but the drying has not 

 proceeded to the extent which is called chemical drying 

 or dehydration. The tiny Rotifers are still of soft con- 

 sistence : the protoplasm is not chemically destroyed. 

 When one is watched with the microscope as water is 

 allowed to flow round it after several months of dust- 

 like aridity, it is seen to emerge from its protective case 

 and at once to commence swimming and searching for 

 food by means of the currents directed towards its mouth 

 by its so-called " wheel-apparatus." I may just say that 

 in the case of the slime-mould called " flowers of tan " the 

 protoplasm dries to the consistency of hard wax, and I 



