Animalcules in Snoic. 57 



I am conscious of the unrequited hazard of a statement of any 

 facts, inconsistent with ordinary observation ; yet I am equally con- 

 scious of the propriety of courage to bear witness to truths, however 

 extraordinary may be their aspect. 



With this, perhaps necessary preface, I will state to you a phe- 

 nomenon which, a few winters ago, came within my observation, as 

 well as that of most of my friends, who are in the habit of social in- 

 tercourse with me. 



When the winter had made a considerable progress, without much 

 frost, there happened a heavy fall of snow ; apprehending that I might 

 not have an opportunity of filling my ice house with ice, I threw in 

 snow, perhaps enough to half fill it ; there was afterwards severely 

 cold weather, and I filled the remainder with ice ; about August the 

 waste and consumption of the ice, brought us down to the snow ; 

 when it was discovered that a glass of water which was cooled with 

 it, contained hundreds of animalcules; I then examined another glass 

 of water, out of the same pitcher, and with the aid of a microscope, 

 before the snow was put into it, found it perfectly clear and pure ; 

 the snow was then thrown into it, and on solution the water again ex- 

 hibited the same phenomenon 5 hundreds of animalcules, visible to 

 the naked eye with acute attention, and v;?hen viewed through the 

 microscope resembhng most diminutive shrimps, and wholly unlike 

 the eels discovered in the acetous acid, were seen in the full enjoy- 

 ment of animated nature. 



I caused holes to be dug in several parts of the mass of snow in 

 the ice house, and to the centre of it ', and in the most unequivocal 

 and repeated experiments had similar results ; so that my family did 

 not again venture to introduce the snow ice into the water they drank, 

 which had been a favorite method, but used it as an external refri- 

 gerant for the pitcher. 



I ask, whence these animalcules could possibly have been derived ? 

 how, and where generated ? how so intimately mixed with the mass 

 of snow? 



That they should have been capable of enduring the temperature 

 in which they were immersed was, certainly, not anomalous in the 

 animal economy ; instances innumerable have established, that the 

 living animal is possessed of a peculiar power to generate heat and 

 support its own temperature under astonishing circumstances ; and 

 as a well known physiologist has remarked, " whether environed by 



Vol. XVill.— No. 1.8 



