1890.] MICEOSCOPIOAL JOUKNAL. 15 



Slides Received. — We return thanks to the donor for the follow- 

 ing interesting slide : Silicified wood from Colorado, evidently one of 

 the Coniferae, as is seen from the cell-wall markings. Prepared by 

 Prof. J. Brownell Rogers, Montpelier, Vt. 



BOYS' DEPARTMENT. 



A Popular Error About Water. 



By E. C. HOYT, 



DETROIT, MICH. 



If the average clergyman could be induced to spend a week over a 

 good microscopical collection, in the company of an enthusiastic micros- 

 copist, he might save himself and his boy hearers from a common 

 error often incorporated into sermons. In a late sermon, by a Brook- 

 lyn divine, upon the wine of Cana, he said: " Beautiful miracle! A 

 prize was offered to the one who should write the best essay about the 

 miracle in Cana. Long manuscripts were presented in the competi- 

 tion, but a poet won the prize by one line descriptive of the miracle, 

 ' The Conscious Water saw its God and Blushed.' If you have a 

 microscope, put under it one drop of water, and see the 'insects float- 

 ing about ; and when you see that God makes them and cares for 

 them and feeds them, come to the conclusion that he will take care of 

 you and feed you." 



How many boys, and others, who are beginners with the microscope, 

 have been at some period in their incipiency just as much at sea about 

 a drop of water as was this clergyman. 



" Insects floating about " in a drop of water is good. 



A few years ago a young inan came to the town in which I lived, 

 and gave exhibitions with three or four microscopes, under one of 

 which he showed what he called "A drop of water taken from the 

 Detroit River." I had, at that time, over a thousand dollars' worth of 

 microscopical goods ; I had learned that there was water in which ani- 

 mal life exists, and water in which there was none. I had myself 

 vainly searched for hours in canal water for a single sign of animal 

 life. 



It so happened that this man remained in town for several days, and, 

 stopping at the same hotel, I formed his acquaintance. I found him to 

 be one of the best posted men on the microscope I had ever met. He 

 asked me to take a walk with him. Provided with fruit jars, dippers, 

 and cloths, we found, by the river, half a mile below the town, a 

 stagnant pool. We dipped up pail after pail of water, strained it, and 

 saved the animalculae, until we had collected the life from a barrel- 

 ful or more of this stagnant water. We took our fruit jars home. We 

 then strained the contents of one jar into a few drops and had an ele- 

 gant supply of " insects " for the evening's entertainment. I saved 

 my jar and had an aquarium for many months. After this I knew 

 more about " a drop of water." 



In order for the water that was converted into wine to have been 

 '* conscious," i. e.^ to have contained life, it must have been grossly 

 stagnant. The poet's metaphor had no foundation in fact. 



