244 Hints to Beginners with the Microscope. 



not withstanding all that lias been written about the astounding- 

 numbers in which Infusoria exist and their universal distribu- 

 tion, the probabilities are, that in his whole collection he does 

 not find a dozen specimens worthy of attention. 



True it is that in stagnant water wherein animal or vegetable 

 substances in a state of decay abound, certain forms are met with 

 in numbers absolutely incalculable, Monads, Spirilli, JSuglenm, 

 and others, now by general consent referred to the vegetable 

 kingdom, — thousands of these crowd every drop of the fluid con- 

 taining them ; such, however, is by no means the case with the 

 more highly organized forms of which the microscopist is gene- 

 rally in search, their presence is almost exclusively restricted to 

 the immediate vicinity of the plants they frequent, and on 

 which they are found as numerously as sheep in a pasture, 

 wandering over their surface by the agency of their cilia (Para- 

 mecium, Kolpoda, etc.), creeping along their stems by means of 

 hooked leg-like appendages (Himantopus charon, etc.) attached 

 to them by highly irritable stems, which shrink from the 

 slightest touch (Vorticella), or sometimes forming a very garden 

 of living arborescences ; if, therefore, instead of bringing home 

 bottles of the water, the caterer for the microscope were to 

 procure but a very small quantity of the verdure skimmed from 

 the surface of the pond, we will venture to say that he would 

 secure variety of specimens and abundance of delightful re- 

 creation. 



There are, moreover, particular plants which are preferred 

 by certain species, and on which they are almost exclusively 

 found. The floating duck-weed, for example, is the favourite 

 resort of Vorticella, Stentors, and the larger species of Infusoria, 

 as well as of whole tribes of other interesting microscopic 

 creatures. This, however, should be obtained from a clear 

 pond, and from undisturbed water; some quiet little spot, 

 situated in the corner of a field, for instance, from which boys 

 and cattle are excluded, and to which the sunshine has free 

 access, not very large, but deep enough to allow of the growth 

 of the larger aquatic plants. Such a locality is an invaluable 

 adjunct to the microscope. The sportsman may rent his moors 

 and the angler his streams for the sake of a few grouse or 

 trout — we envy him not — a table-spoonful of the duck-weed 

 skimmed from such a pond is worth all the moors in Cumber- 

 land to one who prefers the society of his microscope to the 

 companionship of his pointer or his fishing-rod. 



Suppose, again, that Hydrce or the Polyzoa are the objects 

 sought after. To expect to find these in water taken hap- 

 hazard from the pond is a very precarious speculation ; by 

 fishing up, however, some of the sticks which testify by their 

 appearance that they have been floating about for months, and 



