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I N K 



I'NFLUX. (influxus, Lat.) The act of 

 flowing into any thing or place. 



INFO'RMOUS. (informis, Lat. informe, Fr. 

 informe, It.) Without shape ; of no 

 regular figure ; mis-shapen ; ill-fashioned. 



INFRANGIBLE, (infrangibilis, Lat.) That 

 cannot be broken. 



INFUNDIBU'LIFORM. (from infundibulum 

 and forma, Lat.) Funnel-shaped : in 

 botany, applied to a monopetalous corolla, 

 having a conical border placed upon a 

 tube. 



INFUSCA'TION. (infuscatio, Lat.) The 

 act of darkening, or making blackish. 



INFU'SIBLE. That cannot be melted by the 

 application of heat. 



INFUSO'RIA. ) Beings so ex- 



INFU'SORY ANIMA'LCULES. 5 tremely mi- 

 nute as to be invisible to the naked eye, 

 and which have only been discovered since 

 the invention of the microscope. The 

 infusoria have been divided into two or- 

 ders, the Rotifera and Homogenea. The 

 order of Rotifera comprises many genera, 

 Brachiouus, Furcularia, Tubicolaria, and 

 Vaginicola : the Homogenea comprises 

 Ureolaria, Trichoda, Leucophra, Kerona, 

 Himantopes, &c., &c. The most extra- 

 ordinary genus of all is the Proteus. It 

 is not possible to assign to them any de- 

 terminate form ; their figure changes 

 momentarily ; sometimes rounded, some- 

 times divided. The bodies of the infuso- 

 ria are, for the most past, gelatinous. 

 >. When we place a drop of any decayed 

 infusion of animal or vegetable matter 

 under a powerful microscope, and throw 

 a light through that drop, and through 

 the microscope to the eye, we discover in 

 the drop of water various forms of living 

 beings, some of a rounded, some of a 

 lengthened form, and some exhibiting 

 ramifications shooting in all directions, 

 but all apparently of a soft, transparent, 

 gelatinous, and almost homogeneous tex- 

 ture. These beings constitute the lowest 

 form of animals with which we are at 

 present acquainted, and they were at first 

 considered astomatous, that is, without 

 any mouth, and agastric, or possessing no 

 stomach, and were called infusoria, a de- 

 nomination explanatory merely of their 

 habitat, but not of their structure. Upon 

 further examination, it was discovered 

 that there existed animalculse of a higher 

 denomination ; these exist in every stag- 

 nant pool of water, iu every river, and in 

 the ocean. Upon examining with great 

 care many years since the effects of co- 

 loured infusions upon these minute ani- 

 malculse, it was found that they devoured 

 great quantities of the coloured matter in 

 which they were placed, and that they 

 conveyed it into internal cavities or sto- 

 machs, which are sometimes extremely 



numerous in them. Those cavities exist 

 in almost every known genus. Sometimes 

 there are nearly 200 stomachs in a single 

 animalcule. Animalcules are found so 

 exceedingly minute that nearly five hun- 

 dred millions are contained in a single 

 drop of water, that is, as many as there 

 are individuals of our own race on the 

 face of the earth. In those minute beings 

 which constitute the simplest forms of 

 animals, there are numerous stomachs, 

 the lowest class is therefore called Poly- 

 gastrica. They are the food of higher 

 classes, particularly of zoophytes. There 

 is no proper skeleton in the entire class 

 of animalcules called Polygastrica. Some 

 of the polygastrica exude on their surface 

 a secretion which agglutinates, and lays 

 hold of, foreign particles floating in the 

 waters which surround them, and thus 

 form for themselves a partial covering. 

 The earthy matter, however, is not their 

 own produce. Prof. Grant. 



Prof. Buckland observes, " We are 

 more perplexed in attempting to compre- 

 hend the organization of the minutest in- 

 fusoria, than that of a whale ; and one of 

 the last conclusions at which we arrive, is 

 a conviction that the greatest and most 

 important operations of nature are con- 

 ducted by the agency of atoms too minute 

 to be either perceptible by the human eye, 

 or comprehensible by the human under- 

 standing." 



Ehrenberg has ascertained that the in- 

 fusoria, which have heretofore been con- 

 sidered as scarcely organized, have an in- 

 ternal structure resembling that of the 

 higher animals. He has discovered in 

 them muscles, intestines, teeth, different 

 kinds of glands, eyes, nerves, and male 

 and female organs of reproduction. He 

 finds that some are born alive, others 

 produced by eggs, and some multiplied 

 by spontaneous divisions of their bodies 

 into two or more distinct animals. Their 

 powers of reproduction are so great, that 

 from one individual a million were pro- 

 duced in ten days ; on the eleventh day 

 four millions, and on the twelfth sixteen 

 millions. Ehrenberg has described and 

 figured more than 500 species of animal- 

 cules ; he has found them in fog, in rain, 

 and in snow. 



I'NGUINAL. (from inauen, Lat.) Pertain- 

 ing to the groin. 



INHUMA'TION. (inhumatio, Lat. inhuma- 

 tion, Fr.) A burying ; interment. 



INHU'ME. (inhumo, Lat. inhumer, Fr.) 

 To bury ; to cover over with earth. 



INK-BAG. A bladder-shaped sac found in 

 some species of cephalopods, containing a 

 black arid viscid fluid resembling ink, by 

 ejecting which, in case of danger from 

 enemies, they are enabled t render the 



