145 GLIMPSES OF NATURE. 



as a test of vitality ; and a lively worm of something 

 more than microscopic size was similarly wriggling in 

 and out of the hollow slide, and upsetting my cover- 

 glass in its attempts to gain a view of the bigger 

 world beyond the water-drop or two in which it was 

 contained. 



But that which most excited the wonder of my friend 

 was a lively little ball, which kept perpetually gyrating, 

 as it were, beneath his eye, and appeared to defy 

 recognition as approaching in nature to any known 

 animal-form. Here the eye lighted upon a micro- 

 scopic globe, whirling over and over in the water, 

 and not exceeding in size the one-fiftieth of an inch 

 or so. 



It is a hollow sphere, studded at intervals with 

 green spots or specks, which are connected together by 

 threads or processes, imparting a network-like aspect 

 to the structure. The source of its movements is not 

 difficult to determine. Each of the green specks has 

 attached to it a couple of delicate lashes (or " cilia "), 

 similar to those borne by the specks on the margin of 

 the globe ; and by the vibratile play of these lashes, 

 this living globe is made to gyrate within its native 

 waters. Inside the globe (Fig. 31), we see other and 

 smaller spheres. These are youthful globes, which, 

 by the death and disintegration of the parent-globe, 

 will escape into the water, and begin life each on its 

 own account. 



Close examination by a higher power of the micro- 

 scope shows us that each of these greenish masses 

 which dot over the mass of our globe is a distinct 

 living particle. It consists of a speck of living matter 

 (or protoplasm) coloured through its containing par- 

 ticles of the green matter we see familiarly in plants. 



