MINUTE AQUATIC AXIMALS. 73 



boa constrictor, as the process of digestion is advancing. A Lurco of an average 

 size has been known to devour seven monoculi in the course of half an hour. At the 

 end -of this time five of them were seen moving in the first stomach, and the remain 

 ing two were lying in the second nearly dead. This voracious creature often swal 

 lows monoculi whose diameter is often longer than the ordinary width of its own 

 body. In the figure three of its victims are seen within the Dody of the animal. 



EELS IN PASTE. If a paste is made of flour and water, and kept for a few 

 days, its surface will be covered with a collection of minute, light brown animals 

 resembling eels in shape. Not the slightest indication of life can be found in 

 the paste when freshly made ; indeed the heat to which it has been subjected in 

 boiling would inevitably destroy any previous vitality ; and yet but a short time 

 elapses ere it swarms with countless living forms, whose existence, under ordi 

 nary circumstances, terminates only with the entire consumption of the paste 

 upon which they feed. Adams, in his work on the Microscope, remarks, that 

 there are four kinds of eels found in paste ; that during the fall and winter they 

 are oviparous,* and the young eels may then be perceived proceeding from the 

 eggs ; but at other times they are viviparous. The chief figure in drawing 112 

 is a magnified view of a full grown eel of the first kind. The position of the 

 mouth is denoted by the letter a, and so perfectly distinct is this organ, that 

 under the microscope it can be seen in motion as the animal feeds upon the paste ; 

 c, c, and c, are light brown particles of matter, which are found in the interior of 

 the animal ; d, d, d, &c., are young eels in the same situation. 



When a full grown eel is cut in two, the young eels and the brown particles 

 are at once expelled. The result of such a dissection is shown in the group 

 around the central eel, where the individuals are magnified to the same extent as 

 the parent animal. The smaller eels, found on the surface of the paste, and 

 which have not arrived at maturity, exhibit the same appearance as the speci 

 mens composing this group, and display no internal organization, which only 

 becomes apparent as they advance in size. So prolific is this animal that it often 

 contains, when mature, a hundred living eels at one time. 



The second species, which is oviparous, is delineated in figure 113, and is both 



Fig. 113. 



* Ovipmous, producing young from eggs. 



