PALINGENESY 109 



fresh crystals of silver are deposited upon the silver already 

 thrown down. When the illumination of this object under 

 the microscope is properly managed, the appearance, which 

 resembles that shown in Fig. 18, is exceedingly brilliant, 

 and beautiful beyond description. 



That imagination played strange pranks in the observa- 

 tions of the older microscopists is shown by some of the 

 engravings found in their books. I have now before me a 



Fig. 18. 



thick, dumpy quarto in which the so-called seminal animal- 

 cules are depicted as little men and women, and I have no 

 doubt that, to the eye of this early observer, they had that 

 appearance. But the microscopists of to-day know better. 

 Sir Kenelm Digby, whose name is associated with the 

 Sympathetic Powder, tells us that he took the ashes of 

 burnt crabs, dissolved them in water and, after subjecting 

 the whole to a tedious process, small crabs were produced 

 in the liquor. These were nourished with blood from the 



