220 
ANIMALS AND VEGETABLES. 
thought to be an exception to one of the most 
incontrovertible tacts with which we are 
acquainted,' namely, that the mineral kingdom 
does not furnish food for the support of 
animals. 
" Ehrenberg, the illustrious investigator of 
the creatures we are now considering, struck 
with the singularity of this mountain-meal 
being nutritive, examined it microscopically, 
and his well-practised eye at once detected 
that it was entirely composed of the shells of 
animalcules. These, the producers of the 
shells in question, had for ages occupied the 
waters of the districts where the nutritious 
soil is found, and generations after genera- 
tions having perished in countless thousands, 
their exuvise continually subsiding to the 
bottom, have slowly formed a stratum of earth 
of such thickness as really to be an important 
article of diet to the inhabitants of the country, 
in consequence of the quantity of animal 
matter entering into the composition of the 
shells. 
" The discovery of the real nature of the 
Bergmehl was, however, but the first step in 
a field of investigation that now promises to 
be of boundless extent, and fossil infusoria 
have since been everywhere met with in 
startling abundance. The polishing slate of 
Bohemia ( Polischiefer), so extensively used 
on account of its adaptation to polish very fine 
surfaces, is entirely made up of such remains, 
which, from the angularity of their shape, 
their extreme minuteness and silicious hard- 
ness, are well fitted to the use for which they 
are employed by the artificer. We also 
possess numerous other examples, from dif- 
ferent parts of the world ; but, what an over- 
whelming subject of contemplation to the 
reflecting mind ! to think that every grain of 
dust whereon he treads may have been a 
living creature ; and what ideas concerning 
the immensity of the animal creation does not 
the thought suggest !" — Pp. 110—113. 
The phenomenon so much spoken of, and 
written about, the phosphoric appearances in 
salt water, has occupied the attention of many, 
and been considered unaccountable; but nothing 
seems to have escaped our author ; and the 
more we read the work, the more do we find 
proof upon proof of his persevering research, 
and, which to us is a most gratifying truth, 
the right feeling of the lecturer. Here is no 
philosophy to shake the faith of the multi- 
tude in the existence of a Divine origin ; no 
atheism or deism, the usual accompaniments 
of ancient writers and modern copyists : every 
line teems with evidence of the power and 
goodness of the Creator, by whom we are 
" fearfully and wonderfully made ;" — and the 
author does not once allow the subject to be 
unconnected with the infinite power and 
wisdom of the Almighty. We cannot, in fact, 
dismiss the volume for the present with a 
more appropriate passage than that which 
relates to the phenomenon just mentioned : — 
" There are few of our readers who have 
not had an opportunity of witnessing the 
splendid spectacle sometimes presented by the 
sea, when every wave is luminous and shines 
with phosphorescent brightness ; even in our 
climate, during summer time, the ocean seems 
to glow with liquid light that streams from 
every ripple on its tranquil surface. Should 
a passing breeze sweep over the bosom of the 
deep, a blaze of splendour follows it that 
spreads for miles : the sailing ship leaves a 
long wake of glory, stretching far behind it : 
the raised oar drips with bright gems ; or 
should the hand take up a little of the water, 
it seems turned to living diamonds as the 
agitation calls its splendour forth. Should 
you inquire the cause of a phenomenon so 
beautiful, the sailor universally replies, it is 
' the saltness of the sea,' and, seeming well 
satisfied with this mysterious explanation, 
appears to deem the subject settled. From 
age to age the inquiry goes no further, — and 
why ? Because when first the question was 
discussed philosophers themselves assigned 
this reason, and their dictum still exacts 
unquestioned homage. Being much amused 
at hearing this answer invariably given, we were 
well pleased by accident to find the source of 
such a doctrine. Turning the pages of old 
Thomas Hobbes, one of the patriarchs of 
modern science, whose works upon Philosophy 
and Physics appeared about the year 1665, 
when knowledge still was young, we found the 
following explanation of ' the cause of light in 
the concussion of the sea-water.' ' Also/ says 
that truly learned old writer, ' the sea-water 
shineth when it is either dashed with the 
strokes of oars or when a ship in its course 
breaks strongly through it ; but more or less 
according as the wind blows from different 
points. The cause whereof may be this, that 
the particles of salt, though they never shine 
in the salt pits where they are but slowly 
drawn up by the sun, being here beaten up 
into the air in greater quantities and with 
more force, are withal made to turn round, and 
consequently to shine, though weakly. I 
have, therefore, given a possible cause of this 
phenomenon.' 
" Ingenious as this theory might be deemed 
in those days, when physics and metaphysics 
reigned triumphant, and were constantly 
appealed to, to explain by subtle theories, not 
facts, whatever seemed abstruse in nature, 
widely did they err from the grand truth. 
Throughout this immeasurable expanse of 
waves that encircles all this globe, sharing the 
already crowded drops of water lavishly, these 
