MEDUSAE: THEIR MOTIONS. 211 



a certain number of persons, for counting this 

 number. Allowing that one person could count a 

 million in seven days, which is barely possible, it 

 would have required that eighty thousand persons 

 should have started at the creation of the world to 

 complete the enumeration at the present time ! 



" What a stupendous idea this gives of the im- 

 mensity of creation, and of the bounty of Divine 

 Providence in furnishing such a profusion of life 

 in a region so remote from the habitations of men ! 



" The larger portion of these medusa?, consisting 

 of transparent substances of a lemon-yellow colour, 

 and globular form, appeared to possess very little power 

 of motion. Some of them were seen advancing by a 

 slight waving motion, at the rate of a hundred and 

 eightieth of an inch in a second \ and others, spin- 

 ning round with considerable celerity, gave great in- 

 terest and liveliness to the examination. But the 

 progressive motion of the most active, however dis- 

 tinct and rapid it might appear under a high magni- 

 fying power, was, in reality, extremely slow ; for it 

 did not exceed an inch in three minutes. At this 

 rate they would require one hundred and fifty-one 

 days to travel a nautical mile. 



" The vastness of their numbers, and their exceed- 

 ing minuteness, are circumstances, discovered in the 

 examination of these animalcules, of uncommon in- 

 terest. In a drop of water examined by a power of 

 28.224 (magnified superficies) there were fifty in 

 number, on an average, in each square of the mi- 



