NOTES. CXI 



num inundantium impetu denuo nudatam, iterumque siccatam et gramme 

 vestitam commemorat. Igitur Historia zoologica, Historia plantarum et His- 

 toria oryctologica, quse non nisi pristinum orbis terra? statum indicant, * 

 Geognosia probe distinguendse." (Humboldt, Mora Fribergensis subterranea. 

 cui accedunt aphorismi ex Physiologia cheniica plantarum, 1793 p. ix. 

 Respecting the " spontaneous motion" which is spoken of farther on in the 

 text, see the remarkable passage in Aristotle de Coelo, ii. 2, p. 284, Bekker., 

 where the distinction between animate and inanimate bodies is based on whether 

 their movements are determined from within or from without. The Stagirite 

 says, " The life of vegetables produces no movement, because it is plunged m 

 a profound slumber from which nothing arouses it" (Aristot. de generat. 

 animal. V. i. p. 778, Bekker) ; and " plants have no desires which incite them 

 to spontaneous motion" (Aristot. de somno et vigil, cap. i. p. 455, Bekker). 



( 421 ) p. 342. Ehrenberg's memoir, iiber das kleinste Leben im Ocean, 

 read to the Academy of Sciences at Berlin, May 9, 1844. 



I 422 ) p. 343. Humboldt, Ansichten der Natur (2 M Ausgabe, 1826), 

 Ed. ii. S. 21. 



( 423 ) p. 343. On multiplication by spontaneous division and intercalation 

 of new substance, see Ehrenberg, von den jetzt lebenden Thierartcn der 

 Kreidebildung, in den Abhandl. der Berliner Akad. der Wiss. 1839, S. 94. 

 The most powerful productive faculty in nature is that of the Vorticellse. 

 Estimations of the possible increase of masses composed of these animals, ar 

 given in Ehrenberg's great work, Die Infusionsthierchen als vollkommne Or- 

 ganismen, 1838, S. xiii. xix. and 244. " The milky way of these organ- 

 isms is formed of the genera Monas, Vibrio, Bacterium, and Bodo." Life it 

 distributed in nature h such profusion, that small infusoria live parasitically 

 on larger, and are themselves inhabited by smaller (S. 194, 211, and 512). 

 ( m ) p. 344. Aristot. Hist. Animal. V. 19, p. 552, Bekker. 

 C 426 ) p. 345. Ehrenberg, S. xiv. 122 and 493 of the work last quoted. 

 The rapid multiplication of microscopic animalcula is in some species accom- 

 panied by an astonishing tenacity of life : for example, in Wheat-eels, Wheel- 

 animalcules, and Water-bears or tardigrade animalcula. They have been seen 

 to come to life from a state of apparent death after being dried during 28 days 

 in a vacuum with cLloride of lime and sulphuric acid, and exposed to a heat 

 of 120 Cent. (24 Fah.) See M. Doyere's experiments, in his Memoire 

 sur les TardigraJeg, et sur leur propriete de rcveuir a la vie, 1842, pp. 119, 

 129, 131, and 133. On the revival of infusoria which had been for years in 

 a state of desiccation, compare geuerally Ehrenlerg, p. 492 496. 



