52 THE MICEOSCOPE. 



matter are drawn from the surrounding liquid 

 into the vortex of the wheel organs, and so ac- 

 cumulate there, until the pellet the stone for 

 the wall is framed of the necessary materials. 

 It requires about three minutes to prepare the 

 pellet. Then the little architect, having popped 

 up its head out of its tube (" like a sweep 

 peeping out of a chimney-top "), bends down its 

 body, seizes the pellet, and lays the stone in its 

 bed in other words, attaches the newly formed 

 pellet to its own niche on the edge of the 

 gradually rising tubular structure. The head 

 is then lifted up, and the same process of col- 

 lecting materials and bringing them to the 

 stone-manufactory, of making the pellets, and 

 of raising the walls, commences anew. 1 This 

 Architect-Mason animalcule is about two-thirds 

 of a line in length ; 2 and when young has two 

 eyes, teeth, and gizzard. Its teeth are like 

 toothed hammers, fixed on the movable end of 

 the jaw, to strike, or pound as on an anvil. Re- 

 spiratory tubes are sometimes seen. Ehrenberg 

 maintains that this creature has brains ! 



1 Transactions of the Microscopical Society, ii. 3, 4, 5. 



2 A line is one-twelfth of an inch. 



