384 APPEARANCES OBSERVED IN THE 



Perhaps many other objections may be opposed to the sup- 

 position of animalcular life in these bodies ; and yet the strong 

 expression of animation, if I may so term it, and air of seeming- 

 design, with which the varying motions, sometimes slow, and 

 sometimes rapid, are performed, and the difficulty of otherwise 

 accounting for their motion, whether real or apparent, lead, 

 upon the whole, I think, to this supposition, not as one which 

 we can admit with confidence, but as the least improbable con- 

 jecture, which, in the present limited state of our knowledge, 

 we can venture to form.. 



. In managing the microscope, the reflector must not be used ; 

 for when a strong light is transmitted through the fluid, the 

 spicula become invisible, or are only imperfectly seen. The 

 fluid, therefore, containing them, should be placed upon some- 

 thing of a dark colour, as a piece of glass, with its underside 

 blackened ; and, the stronger the light which can be thrown 

 upon the surface, the bettor ; hence they appear uncommonly 

 brilliant and distinct when placed in the sunshine ; and, in this 

 situation, with a high magnifier, they present one of the most 

 brilliant and lively microscopic objects that can be imagined ; 

 each spiculum seems like along bar of light, constantly twink- 

 ling, with a reflection almost too strong for the eye to sustain. 

 They may be also well seen in a strong candle light, so mana- 

 ged, that it may fall upon the surface. 



Perhaps this phaenomenon may have been already, pointed 

 out; but it is not noticed by Adam, Cuvier, Blumensach, or 

 any author with whom I am acquainted. 



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Since 



