5 i8 



Microscopical Essays. 



Of the Eels in blighted Wheat.* 



Thefe animalcula were difcovered by Mr. Needham, and 

 defcribed by him in a work entitled New Microfcopical Dis- 

 coveries. They are not lodged in thofe blighted grains which 

 are covered externally with a foot-like dufl, (whofe infide is often 

 alfo little more than a black powder) but abundance of ears may 

 be obferved in fome fields of corn, which have grains that appear 

 blackifh, as if fcorched ; thefe, when opened, are found to con- 

 tain a foft white fubftance, that, when attentively examined, looks 

 like a congeries of threads, or fibres, lying as clofe as poffible to 

 each other in a parallel direction, and much refembling the un- 

 ripe down of fome thiftles. This fibrous matter does not difcover 

 any figns of life or motion, unlefs ..water be applied to it; the 

 fibres then feparate, and prove themfelves to be Jiving creatures. 



Thefe eels are in general of a large fize, and may be feen with 

 a common magnifying glafs, b^ing about one-thirtieth of an inch 

 in length, and one hundred and fortieth broad. Fig. 5 reprefents 

 one of them magnified about one hundred and twenty times; 

 they are in general of a bright chefnut colour, the extremity a b 

 is whiter and more tranfparent'than the reft of the body. The 

 end a is rather round, the end b is pointed. A diftinguifhing 

 mark of thefe little creatures is a row of tranfparent globules, 

 which are placed at intervals through the whole length of the 

 body, beginning at b, where the tranfparency of the fore-part 

 ceafes, and going on to the extremity c. They are in diameter 

 rather lefs than one-third of the body. Another peculiar mark 



is 



* Btid avoiti. 



