86 JlEMAliKS OF Uli r.AKKJ^. 



and also the egg of one of them, with 

 the young vibrio coiled up in it, magnified 200 

 diameters ; to which reference will be subse- 

 quently made. Although it is only within 

 the last four or five years that the attention 

 of our men of science has been awakened 

 to the real nature of this curious insect, for 

 which we are more particularly indebted to 

 professor Henslow, its real character was not 

 unknown to observers of the last century. In 

 an interesting publication, which came to a 

 second edition in 1764, entitled, "Employ- 

 ment for the Microscope, etc./* by Henry 

 Baker, fellow of the Royal Society, this vibrio 

 is noticed. His remarks on it are as fol- 

 low : " The discovery of a certain kind of an- 

 guillaty or animals resembling eels, in blighted 

 wheat, was accidentally made by my very inge- 

 nious friend, Mr. Turberville Needham, in the 

 summer of the year 1743, in the manner 

 described by himself in his curious book of 

 New Microscopical Discoveries. These ani- 

 malculse are not usually lodged in such blighted 

 grains of wheat as are covered externally with 

 soot-like dust, whose inside is likewise fre- 

 quently converted into a black powder ; but 

 abundance of ears may be observed in some 



