16 VIEWS OP THE MICROSCOPIC WORLD. 



found in strong acids, and in the fluids contained in animal bodies and living plants, 

 and have also been detected alive in moist earth, sixty feet below the surface of the 

 soil. The broad rivers are their home, and far from shore, upon the tropic seas, 

 the ocean swarms, for leagues, with their congregated myriads ; and as the bark 

 of the mariner nightly cuts the wave, the dazzling track it leaves upon the waters, 

 and the fiery spray that flashes from its bows, tell of the presence of life enshrined 

 within an infinity of living atoms. Nor is the bed of the ocean without its minute 

 inhabitants; for the mud brought up by the deep sea lead, from the depth of six 

 teen hundred feet, is full of organic life. There is also every reason for believing 

 that the atmosphere abounds with the eggs of animalcules, as it does with the 

 seeds of minute plants ; and that these germs, being inconceivably light, are raised 

 by evaporation, and borne about by the winds in unseen clouds; ready to burst 

 into life whenever a concurrence of favorable circumstances facilitates their devel 

 opment. Lifted at one time to the loftiest mountain tops, at another carried down 

 to the lowest dells and deepest caverns; they cross seas, sweep over continents, 

 and interchange climes and seasons. In this manner are these invisible forms 

 disseminated over every part of the world ; for wherever investigations have been 

 prosecuted, infusorial animalcules have been discovered. 



Through the patient and presevering labors of distinguished naturalists, no less 

 than as many as several hundred different species of animalcules have been dis 

 tinctly recognized and delineated, and grouped into families and classes ; distin 

 guished from each other by their forms, manner of progression, habits, and modes 

 of reproduction. One kind, the Ophrydinae, is found embedded in vast numbers 

 within a gelatinous mass of matter of a greenish hue, which is sometimes adherent 

 and sometimes free, and may attain a diameter of four or five inches, presenting a 

 strong resemblance to frogs spawn. These masses result from the individual ani 

 malcule propagating by self-division ; each living atom being connected with the 

 rest by a gelatinous exudation from the surface of its body. Other infusoria possess 

 the power of changing their forms at will, and in the space of a few minutes pass 

 through a variety of curious and grotesque shapes. 



Another class shoot up in the form of beautiful shrubs, crowned with bell-shaped 

 flowers, whose margins are encircled with a fringe of slender hairs ; but the flower- 

 cups are living beings, and the mimic tree is instinct with vitality in every branch. 

 At one moment, it is seen spreading outward and upward from the base, with all 

 its living flowers in full expansion; and at the next, should danger threaten, every 

 shoot suddenly contracts, and the whole group of animalcules shrink down in 

 spiral coils, into the smallest compass. The great variety of form possessed by 

 these interesting objects can only be fully conceived by examining those works in 

 which they are accurately delineated. In the great work of Dr. Ehrenberg, they 

 are beheld in all their beautiful and singular proportions. This splendid volume, of 

 folio size, contains sixty-four plates, filled with several hundred infusorial shapes, 

 drawn and colored from nature ; all of which he regarded as true animals. Some 

 resemble globes, trumpets, stars, boats, and coins; others assume the forms of eels 

 and serpents; and many appear in the shape of fruits, necklaces, pitchers, wheels, 

 flasks, cups, funnels, and fans. 



But the minuteness of these beings is no less surprising than the diversity of tneir 

 forms. Myriads of the Epistylis botritis, which belongs to the family of the flower- 

 cup animalcules, might be contained in a drop of water, for it has been computed 

 taat within this small space, not less than thirteen millions could be comprised ; and 



