24 



THE UNIVERSE, 



which is even more than three times the size of those men- 

 tioned. Everything here is prodigious. The microscopic 

 creatures of which we are speaking are so minute that 

 10,000 could be ranged on the length of an inch, and the 



13. Infusoria and Living DiatomaceEe from the Strata under Berlin, as seen mth the 



Microscope. 



weight of each is scarcely equal to the millionth part of a 

 milligramme {-0154 grain), for it has lieen calculated that 

 it requ^ires 1,111,500,000 to weigh a gramme.^ 



Such a soil is naturally wanting in stability. This was 

 shown in the capital of Prussia, where it became necessary, 



^ A gramme is equal to 15'4440 gi'ains. These enormous masses of Infusoria 

 are accounted for, Ijy supposing that they are reproduced with miraculous rapidity 

 by way of subdivision. One of these animalcules divides into two; each of these 

 cpuckly divides into two others; in this way four individuals are speedily formed, 

 then eight, then sixteen, &c. This phenomenon takes place with such incredible 

 rapidity, that, according to Ehrenberg, one of the proto-orgauisms spoken of above 

 can produce a million in twenty-four hours, and in four days about 140 billions; 

 that is to say, uearlj' two cubic feet of the ground on which part of Berlin stands. 



