464 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE 



two vases instead of one, which appear to spring from a 

 common point. These, however, are the result of the 

 spontaneous splitting of one; and in other examples you 

 may see the process in different stages, or, if your pa- 

 tience endure a couple of hours' watching, you may trace 

 the whole phenomena, as I have done, from the moment 

 when it first becomes recognizable to its completion in 

 the freedom of one of the newly formed animalcules. 



For instance, you perceive that one of the bells, instead 

 of being vase-shaped, has assumed a globular form. By 

 keeping your eye on this for only a few moments, you 

 detect a depression forming in the midst of its front out- 

 line, which momentarily deepens, until it is manifestly a 

 cleft. The division proceeds downward, the two halves 

 healing simultaneously, so that they are at all times per- 

 fectly smooth and rounded; at length two vases appear, 

 side by side, where a few minutes before there had been 

 but one. 



One of these is destined to be ultimately thrown off, 

 while the other retains sole possession of the stalk. You 

 goon see which it is that is going to emigrate: for though 

 the two are alike in size, the roving one early closes the 

 mouth of the vase, becoming smooth and globular there, 

 never to open again. The cilia, now therefore become 

 useless, disappear by absorption; but meanwhile a new 

 circle of these organs are developed around the basal ex- 

 tremity of the vase, and these, every instant becoming 

 more vigorous in their motions, sway the little globe 

 about on its point of attachment. At length the connec- 

 tion yields, breaks, and the animalcule shoots away, rowed 

 by its hundred oars, to find a new abode, and to found 

 a new colony. 



