222 LECTURE XII. 



the people by demonstrating to them the real 

 cause. 



Among the most remarkable of the Animalcu- 

 lar tribe may be numbered a species of the genus 

 called Trichoda, chiefly characterized by being 

 beset with hairs or filaments. The species I have 

 just mentioned is the Trichoda Sol; so named 

 from its presenting the appearance of a sun, as 

 generally expressed in engraving; viz. a globe or 

 ball, beset on all sides with very long diverging 

 rays, or spines. This animalcule is of a remark- 

 ably inactive nature, affixing itself to the stem of 

 some small water plant, and occasionally moving 

 at the rate of about a quarter of an inch in an 

 hour. Its size may be considered as gigantic, for 

 one of the animalcular tribe, being equal to that 

 of a small pin's head. This animalcule may be 

 pulled or torn in pieces, by means of a pair of 

 needles or other convenient instruments, and in 

 the space of a single hour each piece will be appa- 

 rently complete, and perfectly globular like the 

 original. It preys on small Monoculi, particularly 

 on a very small species called by Linnaeus Mono- 

 culus Pediculus, hardly larger than a grain of sand. 

 The Trichoda Sol appears to have been first de^ 



