146 



ON THE PRODUCTION OF INFUSORIA. 



" Thus we falconers sport — then homeward we stray, 

 To fight o'er the bottle the wars of the day ; 

 And in honour at night of the chase and its charms, 

 Sink sweetly to rest, with a dove in our arms." 



Kelham, Yorkshire, 27 th of January, 1834. 



ON THE PRODUCTION OF INFUSORIA. 



BY E. G. BALLARD, ESQ. 



The inquiry which your correspondent, " Tyro," has made, relative 

 to the " changes which take place among the particles of vegetable 

 matter when submitted to the putrefactive process, so as to produce 

 these singular creatures," involves many particulars relative both to 

 chemistry and vegetable physiology in its first point, namely, the 

 " putrefactive process;" and, secondly, another intricate investigation, 

 on the actual generative production of these animalcules from the ovi- 

 form state. Such I consider to be the real state of the question pro- 

 pounded by your correspondent. 



In subjects of this nature, the extreme minuteness of the objects of 

 research, which are only visible under the most powerful microscope, 

 renders it impossible to determine their habits or changes, even in the 

 adult state, much less to detect the imperceptible ova from which they 

 are probably hatched ; for equivocal generation^ I presume, is excluded 

 from your correspondent's inquiry. Under these circumstances, probable 

 conjecture^ on sound and rational principles, is all we can have to aid 

 our investigations. 



Having thus placed the question in its true light, I shall proceed to 

 examine, — 



1. The putrefactive process in vegetable matter. 



Without entering minutely into the chemical analysis of vegetable 

 matter, which, throughout the whole vegetable kingdom, according to 

 Nicholson's Chemical Dictionary, amounts to no less than twenty-nine 

 various ingredients, we may briefly observe that the following are 

 universal constituents of all vegetable substances; namely, I, Sugar; 

 2, Gum ; 3, Starch ; 4, Gluten ; 5, Albumen ; 6, Gelatine ; 7, Wood ; 

 8, Fibrin. Of these he gives the following definitions : — 



1. Sugar — crystallises; soluble in water and alcohol; taste sweet; 

 soluble in nitric acid, and yields oxalic acid. 



2. Gum — does not crystallise ; taste insipid ; soluble in water, and 



