110 [Assembly 



our philosophers. However, they form extensive rocky strata, 

 chains of hills, beds of marl, every description of soil almost 

 contains the remains of these little plants, whether on the surface, 

 or when earth is raised from great depths. Some great tracts of 

 country have been built out of their ruins. Our globe is a vast 

 catacomb of Diatomacese. The modern race is precisely like the 

 most ancient. The ice of the antarctic ocean is full of them, so 

 that they stain it of a pale ochrous color, and they are gradually 

 producing a submarine deposit of vast dimensions which flanks 

 the whole length of the Victoria Barrier, a glacier of some four 

 hundred miles in length, and the deposit is one hundred and 

 twenty miles broad. All the soundings here brought up scarcely 

 anything but Diatomacese. These wonderful creatures, which, ♦ 

 by the way, are very much unlike plants, are found also in ponds, 

 in lakes, and travel in air. They are found floating in the atmos- 

 phere of the tropical Atlantic. Darwin, during the voyage of 

 the Eagle, collected an impalpable dust wliich fell on the deck 

 when to the west of the Cape de Verde Islands. On examina- 

 tion with the microscope it was found to consist of skeletons of 

 Diatomacese. They are supposed to have been ejected from some 

 volcano as their silicious skeletons resist the action of fire. (Yet 

 we melt silex easily. — Meigs ) Our chalk cliffs of England are 

 made of shells and corals ; manufactured into whiting, we wash 

 our ceilings with them. Does not London milk contain them 1 

 Are they not in our physic? and in our sugar, plums and comfits? 



Two other tribes of minute beings are less equivocal. The 

 Fungi, some of whose sporules (seeds) float about in the air every 

 where and in everything, and are ready to burst into life wher- 

 ever they find a suitable matrix to grow in. Some sorts of these 

 are luminous. The Rhizoraorpha is phosphorescent, and lights 

 up some mines. Mr. Queckett has examined numerous articles 

 and decided their qualities by his microscopes, such as guano, 

 tea, &c. The Chinese mix millions of pounds of leaves of other 

 plants with tea. The character of diseases has been, in some 

 measure, determined by the microscope. Mildew, ergot, wheat 

 blight, &c., have been examined, and remedies suitable applied. 

 Sugar, coftee, milk, &c., &c., have been proved. The appearance 

 of pure milk is very beautiful. The semi-opaque but yet bright 



