INFUSORY WORMS. 351 



viz. the Vibrio Anguillula or Eel-Vibrio, of which one variety inha- 

 bits acid paste made of flower and water, or such as is used for the 

 common purposes of bookbinding j and the other variety is often 

 found in common vinegar. The paste Vibrio is distinctly visible to 

 a good eye without a glass, and when full grown measures the tenth 

 of an inch in length; it is viviparous, and frequently produces a 

 tribe of young. Its general appearance when magnified is that of 

 an eel. This animalcule, from its size, and the ease with which it 

 may at all times be kept and observed, is peculiarly interesting. It 

 generally swarms on the surface of the paste, and often coats the 

 sides of the vessel in which it is kept, often forming a kind of rami. 

 ficatious, resembling the branched appearance of frost on a window : 

 this is particularly observable in rainy weather. 



The genus Cyclidium is distinguished by its oval shape, and is 

 among the smallest of animalcules : the common oval Cyclidium 

 never fails to appear in countless swarms in any kind of vegetable 

 infusion after the space of a few days ; as in infusions of hay, beans, 

 wheat, and other substances. Its motions are generally very rapid. 



The smallest of all the animalcular tribe belong to a genus called 

 Monas : its character is an oval or roundish body, with a central 

 point or speck. Whenever any kind of soft vegetable substance has 

 been either infused or boiled in water, the water, when set by, will 

 not fail to exhibit animalcules of this genus, sometimes in the space 

 of twelve, but assuredly in the space of twenty-four hours afterwards. 

 The smallest of all these, and the smallest of all animal beings, as 

 far as human research is capable of discovering, is a species called 

 Monas Termo, which when surveyed by the utmost powers of the 

 microscope, still appears but as a kind of moving point, having 

 merely a sensible diameter. It is found in various vegetable infu- 

 sions, appearing in the space of a few hours. 



IS haw. 



