134 GLIMPSES OF NATURE. 



what I had by me, and poured upon it boiled rain- 

 water after it was almost cold. . . . Some hours after, 

 I discovered a few [animalcules] that had opened or 

 unfolded their bodies, swimming through the water." 

 On other occasions, having dried up his animalcules 

 in a glass tube, Leeuwenhoek left them for a day or 

 two in this desiccated state. He then " invited some 

 gentlemen to come and partake of the agreeable spec- 

 tacle with me that is, to see how the said animal- 

 culse would divest themselves of their globular [i.e., 

 their dried] figure, and swim about in the water." 

 After satisfying themselves that the wheel-animalcules 

 were really dried, some water was poured into a glass 

 tube. "Then the gentlemen took the said tube into 

 their hands, and viewing it one after the other through 

 a microscope, they saw the animalculae, after the space 

 of about half-an-hour, beginning to open and extend 

 their bodies, and getting clear of the glass, to swim 

 about the water, excepting only two of the largest of 

 them, that stayed longer on the sides of the glass before 

 they stretched out their bodies and swam away." 



Wheel -animalcules have similarly been revived 

 which had been preserved dried for four years, and the 

 late Dr. Carpenter dried and revived some specimens 

 at least six times. Now, what has science to say to 

 this drying and reviving of animals possessing delicate 

 organs and structures ? Almost nothing. We cannot 

 even picture to ourselves the state or condition of the 

 mummified wheel-animalcule. Water is an essential 

 constituent of the bodies of every living thing. Do 

 these animalcules, then, store this essential part of 

 their tissues despite the drying ? or do they contrive 

 to exist as realistic microscopic mummies, waiting for 

 the return of the reviving fluid ? Who can say ? 



