of the Greenland Sea. 115 
by the microscope, was found to contain animalcules iti immense 
numbers. The larger proportion of these, consisting of a traiis- 
parent substance of a lemon-yellow colour, and globular form, ap- 
peared to possess very little power of motion; but a part, amount- 
ing, perhaps, to a fifth of the whole, were in continual action * ** 
Some of these being seen advancing by a slightly waving mo- 
tion, at the rate of i|^th of an inch in a second, and others 
spinning round with considerable celerity, gave great interest 
and liveliness to the examination. But the progressive motion, 
of the most active, however distinct and rapid it might appear 
under a high magnifying power, was in reality extremely slow, 
for it did not exceed an inch in three minutes. At this rate, 
they would require 151 days to travel a nautical mile. The 
Condur, it is generally believed, could fly round the globe at 
the equator, assisted by a favourable gale, in about a week ; 
these animalcules, in still water, could not accomplish the same 
distance in less than 8935 years ! . ' 
The vastness of their numbers, arid their exceeding minute- 
ness, are circumstances, discovered in the examination of these 
animalcules, of uncommon interest. In a drop of water, exa- 
mined by a power of 28,^^4, (magnified superficies), there were 
fifty in number, on an average, in each square of the microme- 
ter glass of ^Jjjth of an inch in diameter; and as the drop oc- 
cupied a circle on a plate of glass containing 5^9 of these squares, 
there must have been in this single drop of water, taken acci- 
dentally from the surface of the sea, and in a place by no means 
the most discoloured, about 26,450 animalcules. Hence, rec- 
koning sixty drops to a dram, there would be a number in a 
gallon of water, exceeding by one-half the amount of the popu- 
lation of the whole globe. How insignificant, in point of num- 
bers, is man ! What a conception does it give us of the minute- 
ness and wonders of creation, when we think of more than 
26,000 animals living, obtaining subsistence, and moving at their 
ease, without annoyance to one another, in a single drop of wa- 
ter ! 
* This kind resembled the animalcule represented in the “ Account of the 
Arctic Regions,” Plate xvi. fig. 18. 
VOL. IV. NO. 7. .TANUAllY 1821. 
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