EARLY DISCOVERIES BY THE MICROSCOPE. 29 



contact with heaven's air, they dwell, live, and 

 multiply. Berlin's streets above are crowded 

 with its hundreds of thousands of inhabitants ; 

 but beneath these same streets another living 

 world, with its countless millions and billions 

 of microscopic denizens, holds on its own way. 

 Thus Berlin has its ober and its wider land ; 

 and the inhabitants of the upper are not inde- 

 pendent of the inhabitants of the lower country : 

 for it has been found that, in some quarters of 

 Berlin, the stability of houses has actually been 

 endangered by the subterranean operations of 

 these minute tenants of the earth. 



7. The discovery of Ehrenberg led imme- 

 diately to similar ones in different and distant 

 parts of the world. Pritchard tells us that 

 there has recently been found moist earth near 

 Newcastle, almost entirely composed of living 

 Infusoria (Diatomacese ?) Masses of them, in 

 M fossil state, exist in Kichmond (Virginia), in 

 Hanover, Sweden, Norway, <fec. &c. Their 

 shields, or silicious coverings, are still preserved, 

 after the lapse of unnumbered ages, in most 

 exquisite perfection and beauty. A powder 

 from, the tripoli, or polishing slate, of Franzen- 



