216 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
He supposes tlie glutinous substance which surrounds the 
eels, when he cut open the corn, 
Must be secreted by them since, in the infected grains, the cellular tissue 
has entirely disappeared. From this fact, we may consider that the glutinous 
substance preserves the young animals from further change ; and what is 
recorded of the snail, which can, by its own mucus, hermetically seal itself 
for thirty years in its shell against a wall, is similar to this. 
I have resuscitated them after the infected corn has been 
allowed to he excluded from light and air for upwards of eight 
years. Indeed the whole of the species are most remarkable for 
their great tenacity of life, resembling in this particular the 
Tardigrada and Rotatoria. 
The various species of the Anguillula most familiar to micro- 
scopists are — 1st, Ang. Tritici of blighted corn, — wheat, &c. ; 
2nd, Ang. Aceti, of vinegar, or in any substances undergoing 
acetous fermentation ; 3rd, Ang. Glutini, of sour paste, so pre- 
cisely similar to A. Aceti, although authors still persist in 
describing it as distinct, is nevertheless exactly the same in 
every particular; and 4<th, Ang. fiuviatilis, found in waste 
waters among the decaying vegetable matters, as well as in 
wet moss, boggy districts, and moist earth. 
It will be observed that wherever the Anguilluke have been 
found, they are invariably developed in, and probably live 
upon, the decaying vegetable substances. The ova of these 
creatures are so minute, that when the earth or vegetable 
matter is dried up and converted into fine dust or powder, the 
wind takes it up, and it is driven about hither and thither over 
the face of the earth. The microscope has failed, as yet, to 
demonstrate the presence of ova mixed up with earthy or 
vegetable matter, before it becomes infused into the liquid 
material, which swells out the mass, and calls it into new life 
and vigour. Yet that the ova must be present, no reasonable 
mind can doubt, as we soon discover some chemical change 
going on, and suddenly the whole is converted into colonies of 
living- eels ; and such is the tenacity with which they cling to 
life, that no amount of exposure to either heat or cold, or other 
climatic influence, is able to entirely extinguish it. 
Thus, it appears, from the observation of trustworthy ob- 
servers, that Ang . fluviatiles have been exposed to the scorch- 
ing heat of a summer’s sun, until perfectly converted into the 
finest powder or dust ; nevertheless the first gentle shower of 
rain descending upon some of this at once begins to swell it 
up, softens it, and, finally, creatures sporting in the sunshine 
appear in all stages of growth, taking food, and exercising all 
the various functions of the higher- organized animals. What 
is still more extraordinary is, that some of them delight in 
