102 THE YOUNG 
Scores swam about in all sorts of forms. 
Now they looked like cylindrical vessels 
with expanding brims, now globular, now 
oddly distorted, until all semblance of 
the original shape was lost. Many were 
found in shiny tubes, but these were never 
so lively or green as the free swimmers, 
but mostly of a dingy dirty hue. 
These housekeepers were more timid 
and cautious than the roving tribe. They 
came slowly out of their dens, drew back 
at the slightest alarm, never took their 
tails from home, and only extended their 
full length when certain not to be dis- 
turbed. Some authors have thought they 
only take to private lodgings when they 
feel a little bit poorly, but others dispute 
this opinion, and I do not think it is cor- 
rect. I have found these Stentors at all 
seasons, from January to the autumn, but 
they are never so numerous, nor aggre- 
gated in numbers like the roving sort. 
Whether they are old folks, who are tired 
of the world "and its gaieties, and devote 
the remainder of their lives to contempla- 
tion, or whether they are bachelors dis- 
appointed in love, l" am unable to say ; 
but they are very inferior in beauty to the 
*' gay and glittering crowd."* 
For some weeks my Stentors abounded, 
and then most of them suddenly disap- 
peared. They could not have " moved," 
but probably " w^ent to smash " by a pro- 
cess peculiar to infusoria, and which Du- 
jardin politely describes as " diffluence." 
This mode of making an exit from the 
stage of life is more tragical than the rip- 
ping up so fashionable in Japan. The in- 
tegument bursts, and its contents dis- 
perse in minute particles, that in their 
turn disappear, and scarcely leave a 
" wrack behind." 
The Stentors obey the injunction to 
*' increase and multiply " by self-division, 
which Stein says is always oblique, and 
the nucleus, which plays such an impor- 
tant part in infusoria, is band-like, mo- 
niliform (bead-shape), or round. AVhen 
an animalcule increases by self-division, 
a portion of the nucleus goes with each 
part, and it is probably the organ which 
stimulates the change. It is also con- 
cerned in other modes of propagation. 
" The anus is situated on the back, close 
beneath the ciliary circle;" and the 
" contractile vesicle on a level with the 
ciliary wreath." Stein records that in 
November, 1858, he met green Stentors 
(Polymorphus) encysted, and he figures 
one in a gelatinous flask having a stopper 
in its narrow neck. 
Before closing our account of the Sten- 
tor, let us revert a moment to the ciliary 
wreath, as it may be made the subject of 
* Stein says the colorless variety of S. Polymor- 
)hu8 is sometimes found with a tube, and the S. 
ilossellii very frequently so provided. 
SCIENTIST. 
a curious experiment. If, for example, 
the cilia are viewed at right-angles to 
their length, they will seem to form a 
delicate frill, in which a quivering motion 
is perceived. But if the table is shaken 
by a sharp blow, the frill is thrown into 
waves, or takes the form which washer- 
women give to certain articles of female 
apparel by the use of the Italian iron, and 
the ciliary motion is thus made to take 
place in different planes, and rendered 
strikingly apparent. 
One day turning over the Anacharis in 
search of subjects, a small brown tube 
was noticed, from which a glassy rod 
protruded like the feeler of a rotifer. 
Keeping the table quiet, and watching 
the result, was soon rewarded by a fur- 
X 180. 
Cephalosiphon limnias. 
ther protrusion of the feeler, accompa- 
nied by a portion of the body of the in- 
mate of the tube. The feeler was thrust 
on this side and on that, as if collecting 
information for its proprietor, who, I 
suppose, was satisfied with the intelli- 
gence, and gradually extended herself, 
until she stood out two-thirds in length 
beyond the tube, and set two lobes of one 
nearly continuous ciliary organ in rapid 
motion. Sometimes the creature, Cepha- 
