POND-LIFE. 227 



revolve, after the fashion of the paddle-wheel of a steam- 

 boat; as 1 saw the vortex produced by it, and the 

 remarkable manner in which it caught the smaller 

 animalcule, taking it into its transparent body; and 

 then when, employing my highest power, I succeeded in 

 finding a very delicate muscle running from end to end of 

 that fragile stalk, which held the creature to the bit 

 of weed I put into the box you will not wonder at my 

 astonishment being equal to the torpedo-inventor, who 

 exclaimed he was outdone after all; nor will you be 

 surprised at my actually bringing some of my loved ones 

 out of their beds to witness the wonderful things I had 

 found in that prolific pond. 



The inelicerta, so well known to every experienced 

 microscopist, may, I think, be called the prince of rotifers 

 a class of animals called Rotifera, by reason of the 

 rotatory motion in the water produced by cilia surround- 

 ing the mouth, giving it exactly the appearance of a 

 wheel, very actively rotating by means of minute 

 machinery concealed in its transpaient body. But first 

 a word or two about the vorticella. 



In a very interesting volume in my possession, 

 published in 1743, there is the first account I have found 

 of this remarkable creature. The author, one of the 

 Fellows of the Royal Society, Henry Baker by name, 

 describes it thus: "In several of Mr. Leeuwenhoek's 

 letters to the Royal Society, we meet with an account of 

 some surprising animalcules found adhering to the roots 

 of duck-weed (which in summer-time floats plentifully on 

 the surface of ponds and ditches) as examined by him in 

 a glass tube filled with water ; one of these was shaped 

 like bells with long tails, whereby they fastened them- 

 selves to the roots of the weeds ; and sometimes twenty 

 of these were seen together, gently extending their long 



