VALUE OF OBSERVATIONS. 



319 



water, both fresh and salt, and how rapid is their 

 multiplication in such circumstances. Some of these 

 were of the genus Eiiplotes, a large and a small 

 species ; but the swarming multitudes -were of sim- 

 pler structure, more like the family Monadina of 

 Ehrenberg. 



The next day I found the indication but too true ; 

 decomposition was going on in the granular pulp, 

 which was becoming undefined in outline ; and had 

 retired from the shelly tip of the tube. 



The minute details of such observations as these, 

 especially when prematurely terminated, some of my 

 readers may possibly think needless, and therefore 

 worthless: but the phenomena connected with the 

 reproduction of the Zoophytes, are among the most 

 important of those which are now receiving the atten- 

 tion of naturalists. And it is only by carefully 

 watching and accurately recording such phenomena, 

 in every species, as they may occur, that we may 

 hope to establish a sure basis for philosophic genera- 

 lization. Isolated facts are better than none. 



