76 Marvels of Pond-Life. 



CHAPTER VII. 



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I 



JUNE AND JULY. 



Lindia Torulosa— (Ecistes Crystalllnus — A professor of deportment on 

 stilts — Philodina — Changes of form and habits — Structure of 

 Gizzard in Philodina family — Mr. Gosse's description — Motions of 

 Rotifers — Indications of a will — Remarks on the motions of lower 

 creatures — Various theories — Possibility of reason — Reflex actions 

 Brain of insects— Consensual actions — Applications of physiological 

 reasoning to the movements of Rotifers and Animalcules. 



PRESSUEE of otlier occupations prevented 

 full use being made of June and July, nor 

 was the weather at all propitious. For this 

 reason the microscopic doings of these two months are 

 recorded in one chapter. 



As usual the Kentish Town ponds were productive 

 of objects, and among them were several rotifers not 

 found in the previous months. The first of these was a 

 very small worm-like thing, with one eye, a tuft of cilia 

 about the mouth, and two toes at the tail end. Had it 

 not been for the jaws, which were working like fingers 

 thrust against each other, and which were unmistakably 

 of the rotifer pattern, the animal might have been 

 supposed to belong to some other class. According to 

 the ^ Micrographic Dictionary,^ the Lindia torulosa is 

 1-75'' long, but this specimen was only about 1-200''. 



