204 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Lit 



The Use of a Little Influence Added to a Great 

 Enterprise. 



A little river may be received into a large one without aug- 

 menting either its width or depth. This, which at first view 

 seems a paradox, is yet very easily accounted for. The little 

 river in this case only goes towards increasing the swiftness of 

 the larger, and putting its dormant waters into motion. A. 



The Speculative Liquidator. 



Our winding-up courts have revealed a vast multitude of 

 persons speculating in the liquidation of public companies, who 

 are called "wreckers." These "wreckers," when once settled 

 on the corpse of a company, cannot be induced either by decency 

 or pity to move away. Greedy and cruel, they are like the 

 tawny vulture (Gyps fulvus), which feeds, like the rest of its 

 family, upon carrion. When a party of these vultures has once 

 taken possession of the carcase of a large animal, they are said 

 never to quit it as long as a morsel of the flesh remains, so that 

 they may be seen in the same spot for days together. Wnen 

 fully fed, or rather crammed with food, they are quite incapable 

 of flight ; and if suddenly disturbed in this happy condition, 

 they are compelled to disgorge the greater part of their banquet 

 before they can rise. MU. 



The Aggregate Capacity of Little Things. 



At the first glance it seems improbable that the animalcules 

 should possess any influence over the movements of the ocean, 

 the symbol to human minds of immensity, but we might as well 

 deny the action of the drops, the molecules of salt and water 

 which compose it. What matters their minuteness when 

 numbers conpensate ? And the number of animalcules which 

 work and throb in the bosom of the seas is as incalculable as 

 that of the drops of water. Their fecundity is inconceivable ; 

 the waters are literally composed of them ; they are the " living 

 waters " of Scripture. They preserve the identity of the com- 

 position of the sea by absorbing the salts mostly with a basis 



