THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
25 
symptoms of hairs or cilia at its head. 
This was enough to indicate the nature of 
the creature, and to stiow the necessity for 
a careful management of the light, which 
being adjusted obliquely, gave quite a new 
character to the scene. The dirty brown 
hue disappeared, and was replaced by 
brilliant colors ; while the hairs, instead 
of appearing few and short, were found to 
be extremely numerous, very long, and 
glistening like delicate threads of spun 
glass. 
Knowing that the Floscules live in 
transparent gelatinous tubes, such an ob- 
ject was carefully looked for, but in this 
instance, as is not uncommon, it was per- 
fectly free from extraneous matter, and 
possessed nearly the same refractive 
power as the water, so that displaying it 
to advantage required some little trouble 
in the way of careful focusing, and many 
experiments as to the best angle at wliicii 
the mirror should be turned to direct the 
light. When all was accomplished, it was 
seen that the Floscule had her abode in [ 
a clear transparent cylinder, like a thin 
confectioner's jar, which she did not touch 
except at the bottom, to which her foot 
was attached. Lying aside her in the 
bottle were three large eggs, and the 
slightest shock given to the table, induced 
her to draw back in evident alarm. Im- 
mediately afterwards she slowly pro- 
truded a dense bunch of the line long 
hairs, which quivered in the light, and 
shone with a delicate bluish-green lustre, 
here and there varied by opaline tints. 
The hairs were thrust out in a mass, 
somewhat after the mode in which the 
old-fashioned telescope hearth- brooms 
were made to put forth their bristles. As 
soon as they were completely everted, to- 
gether with the upper portion of the Flos- 
vcule, six lobes gradually separated, caus- 
ing the hairs to fall on all sides in a grace- 
ful shower, and when the process was 
complete, they remained perfectly motion- 
less, in six hollow fan-shaped tufts, one 
being attached to each lobe. Some in- 
ternal ciliary action, quite distinct from 
the hairs, and which has never been pre- 
cisely understood, caused gentle currents 
to flow towards the mouth in the middle 
of the lobes, and from the motion of the 
gizzard, imperfectly seen through the 
integument, and from the rapid filling of 
the stomach with particles of all hues, it 
was plain that captivity had not destroyed 
the Floscule's appetite, and that the drop 
of water in the live-box contained a good 
supply ot food. 
Sometimes the particles swallowed were 
too small to be discerned, although their 
aggregate effect was visible ; but often a 
monad or larger object was ingulfed, but 
without any ciliary action being visible to 
account for the journey they were evi- 
dently compelled to perform. The long 
hairs took no part whatever in the forag- 
ing process, and as they do not either 
provide victuals or minister to locomotion, 
they are clearly not,- as was supposed by 
early observers, representatives of the 
"wheels," which the ordinary Eotifers 
present. Neither can the cylindrical jar 
or bottle be justly deemed to occupy the 
position of the lorica, or carapace which 
we have before described. The general 
structure of the creature and the nature 
of its gizzard distinctly marked it out as a 
member of the family we call " Rotifers," 
but the absence of anything like " wheels " 
proves that those organs are not essential 
characteristics of this class. 
Boring Wooden Handles. 
WHERE many handles are to be bored, 
a half round bit, or a short piece 
broken off a carpenter's nose-bit and 
soldered into a small brass chuck to fit 
into the centre hole of the poppet head 
would be a good way of starting the holes. 
The handles should be held either in a 
clamp chuck or supported by a collar 
plate. I always use a common gimlet, 
taking care, however, not to work it as 
you would a cork-screw, viz., holding the 
bottle still and turning the screw round, 
but holding the gimlet firmly in the right 
hand and letting the tool handle shift at 
each half turn in the left hand as by this 
means you can feel whether it is running 
straight down the middle or not, and with 
a common gimlet you can apply force 
sideways to scooj) the hole when you find 
any tendency to running out. The usual 
way is to burn the tools into their handles, 
and I see no objection to the practice, pro- 
vided first the hole has been bored deeper 
than the point of the tang of the tool will 
go; and secondly, that all the charred 
portion of the wood is filed or scraped 
out of the hole before finally driving the 
tool in. 
A much better plan is to have two or 
three floats or taper files cut on one side 
and one edge only with a few coarse teeth, 
and one or all made to cut backwards, for 
getting out the holes to suit the different 
dimensions of tangs. Almost any old tool 
that is small enough will do to make them 
of, and the notches may be and are better 
for being as uneven as you please ; and 
the tool need not be hardened, or if hard- 
ened should be lowered to saw temper so 
that you can easily sharpen it with a flle. 
The best wood for handles is ash, as it 
does not blister the hands. It must be 
well seasoned or the ferrules will drop off, 
and a dressing of linseed oil and yellow 
ochre, with alkanet root to give a red 
tinge, should be smeared on and allowed 
to dry on for a day or two before giving 
the finishing rub off. — English Mechanic. 
