ORGANIC MECHANISM. • 53 



periinents made upon it by Spallanzani, can live 

 only in water, and is commonly found in that which 

 has remained stagnant for some time in the gutters 

 of houses. But it may be deprived of this fluid, 



and reduced to perfect dryness, so that all the func- 

 tions of life shall be completely suspended, yet 

 without the destruction of the vital principle ; for 

 this atom of dust, after remaining for years in a 

 dry state, may be revived in a few minutes by 

 being again supplied with water. This alternate 

 suspension and restoration of life may be repeated, 

 without apparent injury to the animalcule, for a 

 great number of times. Similar phenomena are 

 presented by the Vibrio tritici, (Fig. 2.) or the 

 animalcule, resembling an eel in its shape, which 

 infests diseased wheat, and which, when dried, ap- 

 pears in the form of a fine powder: on being moist- 

 ened, it soon resumes its living and active state. t 

 The Gordius aquaticus, or hair worm, which inha- 

 bits stagnant pools, and which remains in a dry, 



1776 ; and their accuracy has been since fully verified by Schultze, 

 who communicated his observations on this animalcule, which he 

 called the Macrobius Hufelandii, to the meeting of German natu- 

 ralists at Breslau. (See the his for 1834, p. 708 : and Dujardin, 

 Ann. Sc, Nat. serie 2, x, 181.) 



t Bauer, Philosophical Transactions for 1823, p. 1. 



