The Animalcules in Water. 113 



There were a few others besides these, which 

 appeared when a small portion of the duckweed and 

 a drop of the water were examined in a live-box ; but 

 the above were all seen with the microscope through 

 the wine-glass's side. I found it not difficult to 

 remove for closer examination, any particular group 

 of stentors, or tolerably large animalcules, by raising 

 them with a shovel-like wedge of paper. Another 

 well-known and excellent plan for securing small 

 objects in the water is to use a " dipping- tube." This 

 being made of glass, and open at each end, you place 

 your finger on its top, and gently push its lower end 

 close to the object ; then slightly raise your finger, 

 and a little water will suddenly rise into the tube, 

 probably carrying the object with it, which you 

 can then lift on to a slip of glass, or to the live-box. 



A glass trough has been contrived for holding 

 animalcules and growing plants, and allowing these 

 to be examined from outside, it looks not unlike one 

 of the " baths " used in photography. Dr. Carpenter 

 figures it, and also gives a view of an "aquarium 

 microscope/' the instrument's tube being mounted on 

 a stem which can be attached like a vice to a table ; 

 still I have described my own plan, as it may be said 

 to require no apparatus. 



And now for a little book-lore on the subject of 

 the tadpole's small neighbours. In the infancy of 

 microscopic knowledge, all the minute water-animak 

 which were too small to be discerned without a micro- 

 scope, and which could not be very clearly examined 

 even with the microscope, that instrument being then 



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