Microscopical Essays. 



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thofe he made on the infufions of muflirooms irr water, it appear- 

 ed evidently that the feeds were put in motion by minute animafs, 

 which arofe on the decompofition of the mufhroom ; thefe, by 

 pecking at the feeds, which are little round reddifli bodies, 

 moved them about with great agility in a variety of directions, 

 while the little animals themfelves were fcarce vifible till the food 

 they had eaten difcovered them. 



The ramified filaments, and jointed or coralloid bodies, which 

 the microfcope difcovers to us on the furface of moft vegetable 

 and animal infufions, when they become putrid, and which were 

 fuppofed by Mr. Needham to be zoophytes, were found by Mr. 

 Ellis to be of that genus of fungi called mucor, many of which 

 have been figured by Michelius, and defcribed by Linnaeus. 

 Their vegetation is fo quick, that they may be feen to grow and 

 feed under the eye of the obferver ; other inftances of fimilar 

 miflakes in Mr. Needham's experiments may be feen in Mr. Ellis's 

 paper, Philof. Tranf. vol. lix. p. 138. 



A fpecies of mucor arifes alfo from the bodies of infects putre- 

 fying in water ; this fpecies fends forth a mafs of tranfparent 

 filamentous roots, from whence arife hollow feed veflels ; on the 

 top there is a hole, from which minute globules often iffue in 

 abundance, and with confiderable elaftic force, which move 

 about in the water. It will, however, be found, with a little at- 

 tention, that the water is full of very minute animalcura, which 

 attack thefe feeds, and thus prolong their motion; but after a 

 fmall fpace of time they rife to the furface, and remain there 

 without any motion ; a frefh quantity rifes up, and floating to 

 the edge of the water, remains there inactive 3 but no appearance 



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