INFUSORIA -M5 



counting, when the objects are so very evanescent as these 

 vibrating cilia. 



The vacuoles, and the temporary stomachs, more or 

 less completely filled with the brown and green food, which 

 the animals are collecting from the decayed vegetable 

 matters, are sufficiently numerous and conspicuous; but 

 they may be rendered still more so by the device of mix- 

 ing a little carmine with the water. The ciliary currents 

 are thus instantaneously rendered strikingly visible. The 

 crimson atoms are attracted from all quarters toward the 

 tail of the animal, whence they are urged in a rapicj. stream 

 along one side toward the head, around which they are 

 hurled, and then down the other side to the tail, pouring 

 off in a dense cloud in a direction contrary to that in which 

 they originally approached. 



But now the gathered currents have produced their 

 expected result; for many of the globular vacuoles are 

 already become of a beautiful rosy hue, from the minute 

 particles of the pigment which have been whirled to the 

 mouth, and swallowed. 



The feature of greatest interest, however, in this animal 

 is the contractile bladder. Two of these organs are usually 

 seen co-existent in each individual; placed, the one on the 

 front, the other in the rear of the mouth, but near the 

 opposite i.e., the dorsal surface of the body; for as 

 the creature slowly revolves on its longitudinal axis, the 

 3ine of the vesicles alternately approaches and recedes 

 from that of the mouth. They are remarkable for their 

 structure. Far from the simplicity in which the organ 

 is usually presented to us in the animals of this class, the 

 contractile bladders are here very complex. Each when 

 distended is globular; and it is surrounded by a number 



