66 HISTORY OP BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 



little on any kindred object which, while it delights the eye, 

 may improve the heart. Had not the telescope been in- 

 vented, the milky way might still have been thought a 

 white fleecy cloud spread over a portion of the heavens, in- 

 stead of bright worlds, not placed in close proximity, but 

 farther removed from each other than our sun is from our 

 earth, and yet as numerous as the sand on the sea-shore. 

 And had not the microscope been invented, our little cili- 

 ated polypes might have lived and died till time was no 

 more, without one human being ever dreaming that they 

 were living creatures, or, at all events, without one human 

 eye living capable of seeing a structure which, when seen 

 by lenticular aid, constrains us to exclaim, How beautiful ! 

 how wonderful ! 



There are various kinds of ciliated polypes ; but we mean 

 to confine our attention to that section of them to which 

 Lamarck has given the name of Vorticella, and only to a 

 few of these, for he has described no less than twenty-eight 

 species. According to his description, they are very minute, 

 gelatinous, and transparent, having no tentacula, but having 

 around the mouth cilia, which do not lay hold of their 

 prey, but which, by an oscillating or rotatory motion of 

 inexpressible rapidity, cause the water containing the ani- 



