234 The Microscope. 



serve it to walk or swim; but it generally creeps along at the bot-' 

 torn of the drop. 



Fig. 14 represents an aquatic animal; its appearance to the na- 

 ked eye is like a slender worm, about one tenth of an inch in 

 length, but the microscope shows its real form; from the head a 

 long proboscis extends, and is moved every way with great readi- 

 ness; the head is of a yellowish color, the rest of the body trans- 

 parent, and long tufts of hair grow from it; the blood circulates in 

 the middle of the body, running towards the tail. 



Paste Eels. Those who are desirous to be furnished with a 

 curious living object for the microscope, should be provided with 

 the eels in paste: they are, after the paste has been made for some 

 weeks, so numerous, that the whole surface of it appears alive, and 

 by taking from the surface with a point of a needle the smallest 

 particle, and putting it in a drop of water, it will be found to con- 

 tain a number of these minute eels, fig. 17, with a continued reg- 

 ular motion swimming about the drop of water. A curious experi- 

 ment may be performed by separating one of the larger sort from 

 the rest; by placing it in another drop of water by means of a fine 

 point of a quill; it may then be easily cut asunder by a fine lancet, 

 and if the division is made about the middle of the animal, several 

 oval bodies will be seen to come forth, as in fig. 18; these are the 

 young, curled up in a fine membrane: the largest and most for- 

 ward break through it, unfold themselves, and swim away; num- 

 bers have been seen to issue from one single eel, which accounts 

 for their great increase. The question is, by what means do they 

 first get into the paste; if an egg were in the flour, the operation 

 of boiling the paste w'ould certainly destroy them, but it is a most 

 extraordinary fact, that they will live in a degree of heat above 

 one hundred; and in paste too hot to bear the finger in. In view- 

 ing the paste eel with deep powders, there is no necessity to pro- 

 duce an elevation between the glass and the talc, as the paste al- 

 though diluted with water, answers that purpose — place a drop of 

 water upon the glass, into which introduce a small quantity of the 

 paste, covering both with a very thin piece of talc: prepared in 

 this way, any power may be applied with effect: in fact, the paste 

 eel is a good object for the deepest powers. 



Vinegar Eels. A small eel may hkewise be found in the 

 dregs of vinegar, that moves much quicker than the above. 



Eels in Blighted Wheat. These animalcules are not usu- 

 ally lodged in such blighted grains of wheat as are covered exter- 

 nally with a soot-like dust; but abundance of ears may be observed 

 in some fields having grains that appear blackish, as if scorched, 

 and, when opened, are found to contain a soft white substance. 



