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ANIMAL LIFE ON THE 
debris may accumulate within. Next, our attention is 
drawn to the two hands. On a more minute inspection of 
the formation of these, we notice the arms are furnished 
with shoulder and elbow joints, which enable them to 
stretch up or down, out or in, or in any direction whatever. 
Looking at the hands again, what we have likened to a 
fingerless gloved-hand is a double-fringe of fine hairs; and 
these, when extended, form an eclipse opening or cavity, 
surrounded by a perpendicular wall of hairs arranged in 
mathematical order. The movements of these appendages 
next engage our attention. With a sudden twitch they are 
now thrown out right in front and as quickly drawn in. 
Again they shoot out like a dart above, next they flash to 
the right, now to the left; then for a time, with little move- 
ment of the arms, they jerk, jerk forward, similar to the 
action of the head of hungry barn-door fowls when picking 
up the scattered piles of corn thrown to them. 
And what is the meaning of all this ? Each movement, 
we can see, is accompanied with the opening and closing of 
the hand, as if laying hold of some object. The particles 
in the water observable to us are not the objects, for they 
fly past with the current in all directions, but go by un- 
heeded. What, then, can it be ? Evidently animalcules ; and 
we see that when the hand gathers a suflicient quantity it 
sweeps down into the jaw feet brushes, and after being 
stripped of its cargo returns to its work again. I think, 
therefore, the wonderful mechanism of the hands, in con- 
junction with their movements, puts it beyond dispute that 
their chief work is the capture of animalcules, and possibly 
those of a particular kind, and for a particular purpose; 
and the feelers, armed with their barbs, seem to perform 
the same work, for, while they are constantly moving about, 
occasionally they are thrown out to particular points, like 
