CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Omnipresence of Life. The Microscope. An Opalina and its 

 Wonders. The Uses of Cilia. How our Lungs are protected 

 from Dust and Filings. Feeding without a Mouth or Stomach. 

 What is an Organ? How a complex Organism arises. 

 Early Stages of a Frog and a Philosopher. How the Plants 

 feed. Parasites of the Frog. Metamorphoses and Migrations 

 of Parasites. Life within Life. The budding of Animals. 

 A steady Bore. Philosophy of the infinitely little Page 9 



CHAPTER H. . 



Ponds and Rock-pools. Our necessary Tackle. Wimbledon 

 Common. Early Memories. Gnat Larvae. Entomostraca 

 and their Paradoxes. Races of Animals dispensing with the 

 sterner Sex. Insignificance of Males. Volvox Globator: is it 

 an Animal? Plants swimming like Animals. Animal Retro- 

 gressions. The Dytiscus and its Larva. The Dragon-fly Lar- 

 va. Mollusks and their Eggs. Polypes, and how to find them. 

 A new Polype, Hydra rubra. Nest-building Fish. Con- 

 tempt replaced by Reverence 39 



CHAPTER m. 



A garden Wall, and its Traces of past Life. Not a Breath per- 

 ishes. A Bit of dry Moss and its Inhabitants. The "Wheel- 

 bearers." Resuscitation of Rotifers: drowned into Life. 

 Current Belief that Animals can be revived after complete De- 

 siccation. Experiments contradicting the Belief. Spallanzani's 

 Testimony. Value of Biology as a Means of Culture. Classi- 

 fication of Animals: the five great Types. Criticism of Cu- 

 vier's Arrangement 59 



