20 THE EOTIFEKA. 



respect and admiration, especially if we take heed to the simplicity of the means by 

 which God has made and preserved them. The smallest gnats are as perfect as the 

 hugest animals, the proportions of their limbs are equally just, and it seems as if God 

 had even wished to give them more ornaments than He has to the greater creatures, in 

 order to make up to them for the srnallness of their bodies. They have crowns, tufts, 

 and other adornments on their heads, which surpass all that female luxury has invented ; 

 and we may say that those who have looked only with unaided eyes have seen nothing 

 so beautiful, so fitting, nor even so magnificent, in the palaces of the greatest princes, as 

 that which the microscope shows on the head and body of a simple fly." 



About forty years after Joblot, HENRY BAKER, F.K.S., published a somewhat 

 similar work. The first volume, " The Microscope made Easy," treats of the instrument 

 itself ; while the second volume, " Employment for the Microscope," describes the various 

 things that may be seen with it. 



In the second volume he gives an elaborate account, with figures, of what I believe 

 to be Philodina roseola ; as well as descriptions and drawings of Rotifer macrums, 

 Brachionus pala, B. urceolaris, B. Bakeri, and probably also of Euchlanis triquetra ; 

 and of these six species the second and last had not been described before. 



His drawings are vastly superior to those of Joblot, especially his figures of the 

 Brachioni. He notices and introduces into his figure the long vibrating styles which 

 crown the head of B. pala, as well as its winter eggs. He failed, indeed, to understand 

 the lorica of Euchlanis ; but that is no wonder, for he has had many to bear him company. 



It is unnecessary for me to say more of a book that is still within everyone's reach ; 

 but there is one admirable passage in his preface that I must give myself the pleasure of 

 quoting. 



" That man is certainly the happiest who is able to find out the greatest number of 

 reasonable and useful amusements, easily attainable and within his power ; and, if so, 

 he that is delighted with the works of nature, and makes them his study, must un- 

 doubtedly be happy ; since every animal, flower, fruit, or insect, nay, almost every 

 particle of matter, affords him an entertainment. Such a man never can feel his time 

 hang heavy on his hands, or be weary of himself, for want of knowing how to employ 

 his thoughts ; each garden or field is to him a cabinet of curiosities, every one of which 

 he longs to examine fully ; and he considers the whole universe as a magazine of wonders, 

 which infinite ages are scarce sufficient to contemplate and admire enough." 



In Plate B, I have given copies of some of the old figures drawn by these authors, and 

 if the reader will compare them with EH REN BERG' s drawings of the same animals, he 

 will see at a glance why the Prussian naturalist's work ' swallowed up as it were the very 

 memory of all his predecessors. Instead of feeble, inaccurate drawings, in which the 

 internal structure was represented by mere blots and patches, Ehrenberg gave excellently 

 drawn figures full of accurate details ; and at the same time described the animals them- 

 selves with wonderful exactness, considering the very great number that he studied 

 unaided. 



Nor was this all : he had such a grasp of the whole subject, such a minute personal 

 knowledge of the living animals themselves, that he invented a system of classification 

 which has held its own for nearly fifty years. 



In addition to its other merits, Ehrenberg' s splendid work added more than a hundred 

 new species to those already known, containing among them such remarkable forms as 

 Conochilus volvox, Notommata clavulata, N. copeus, N. centrum, Diglena grandis, 

 Polyarthraplatyptera, Noteus quadricornis, Microcodon clavus , (Ecistescrystallinus, &c. 



Three years after the publication of " Die Iiifusionsthierchen," DUJARDIN published 

 his " Iiifusoires " as one of the volumes of the Histoire Naturelle des Zoophytes in the 

 " Suites a Buffon." The last part of this volume, being one-sixth of the whole, is devoted 

 to the " Systolides " or Eotifera. His book is mainly critical, and, so far as I can find, con- 

 tains little on the Eotifera that was new, except his observations on Albertia and Lindia. 



1 Die Lifzisionsthicrclien ; Leipzig, 1838. 



