INFUSORIA. 



403 



The astronomer turns his telescope from the earth, and 

 ranges over the vast vault of heaven, to detect and delineate 

 the beautiful objects of his pursuit. The naturalist turns 

 his microscope to the earth, and in a drop of water finds a 

 wondrous world of animated beings, more numerous than 

 the stars of the milky way ; and these he classifies into 

 genera and families, and catalogues in his history of the 

 invisible world. 



The Infusoria are a mighty family, as they frequently, 

 in countless myriads, cover leagues of the ocean, and give 

 to it a beautiful tinge from their vivid hue. They are 

 discovered in all climes, have been found alive sixty feet 

 below the surface of the earth, and in the mud brought up 

 from a depth of sixteen hundred feet of the ocean. They 

 exist at the poles and the equator, in the fluids of the 

 animal body, and plants, and in the most powerful acids. 

 A brotherhood will be found in a little transparent shell, 

 to which a drop of water is a world ; and within these are 

 sometimes other communities, performing all the functions 

 granted them by their Creator, and eagerly pursuing the 

 chase of others less than themselves. 



The forms of the Infusoria are endless ; some changing 

 their shape at pleasure, others resembling globes, eels, 

 trumpets, serpents, boats, stars, pitchers, wheels, flasks, 

 cups, funnels, fans, and fruits. 



The multiplication of the species is effected in some by 

 spontaneous division or fissuration, in others by gemma- 

 tion or budding, as well as a true sexual process. The 

 first step in the process by which infusorial animals are 

 eliminated, is the formation of globular corpuscles or cells, 

 which, by their aggregation in some cases, and individual 

 evolutions in others, give birth to organisms which sub- 

 sequently appear. 



The Infusoria have no night in their existence ; they 

 issue into life in a state of activity, and continue the 

 duration of their being in one ceaseless state of motion ; 

 their term is short, they have no time for rest and there- 

 fore have but one day, which ends only with their death 

 and decomposition. Nevertheless, they appear to love 

 that which promotes life, the light of heaven ; while 

 others, born in the bowels of the earth, never having par- 



