INFUSOKIA. 107 



housetop, in the cleft of a wall, or under the capital of a column ; but 

 let a drop of water approach it, and the dormant being awakes imme- 

 diately the microscopic Lazarus springs again into existence : feeds 

 and multiplies as before : and its life, suspended possibly for years, 

 resumes its interrupted course ! 



Into what a world of reflection does not a revelation of this 

 mysterious property of a living creature plunge us ! 



The physiologist Miiller has noted another peculiarity in infusorial 

 life. These animalcules can lose a part of their bodies without being 

 destroyed ; the dead part disappears, and the individual, diminished 

 by one-half, or reduced to a fourth of its former size, continues to live 

 as if nothing had happened. Miiller has observed a kalpode (Kolpoda 

 meleagris) thus melt before his eyes until scarcely a sixteenth part of 

 its body remained. After its loss, this sixteenth part of an animal 

 continued to swim about without troubling itself as to its diminished 

 proportions. " The infusoria," says Fre'dol, in " La Monde de la Mer," 

 " present yet another kind of decomposition. If we approach the drop 

 of water in which it swims with the barb of a feather dipped in 

 ammonia, the animalcule is arrested in its movement, but its cils 

 continue to move rapidly. All at once, upon some point of its circum- 

 ference, a notch is formed, which increases bit by bit until the whole 

 animal is dissolved. If a drop of pure water is added, the decom- 

 position is suddenly stopped, and what remains of the animalcule 

 recommences its swimming movements." (Dujardin.) 



We may divide the Infusoria into two orders the Ciliate Infusoria, 

 namely, those provided with vibratile cilia, and the Flagelliferous 

 Infusoria, those, namely, which have arms or branches. The greater 

 part of Infusoria belong to the first order, which comprehends many 

 families; our space limits us to the mention here of a few typical 

 forms only -in each group, selecting those which appear the most 

 interesting, from their size, structure, rarity, or abundance. 



FLAGELLIFEROUS INFUSORIA. 



The family of Vibrionidse, so named from their darting or quivering 

 motion, includes the eel-like microscopic animalcules which occur in 

 stale paste, vinegar, &c., with some others, which are parasitic on 

 living vegetables, such as Vibrio tritici, which infest the grains of 



