274 
WONDERS OF THE MICROSCOPE. 
what changes the i( primordial utricle” is undergoing; he 
can watch the subdivision of one into two new cells, or he 
can investigate in Chara the currents which traverse the cells; 
and bv carefully focusing, this circulation mav be seen in broad 
streams, which detach and carry along little oval or globular 
bodies ; thus the celfs contents are kept in a sort of twisting or 
roll! ng movement. He can also observe the wonderful union 
of separate filaments, the formation of a sC vital spore” from 
the union of the contents of neighbouring cells, and many 
other points of interest to the physiologist. 
If his attention be turned to the Cryptogamiae, or flowerless 
plants, he will find a form of spermatozoid so closely resembling 
the impregnatory bodies of the higher animals, as to open 
his mind more strongly than ever to a conviction of the 
intimate bond by which all the members of the organized 
world are bound. Such investigations will then come in aid 
of those relative to the development of spermatozoa cells, &c., 
in animals, and, consequently, the microscopist will be able 
to form more exact notions as to the vital actions in the 
animal and vegetable kingdoms than are usually held by those 
who confine their investigations to either subdivision of the 
organized world. 
The history of the discovery of the reproduction of the 
simplest plants (club mosses, ferns, &c.), by the agency of 
sperm-cells and germ-cells , is one of the most brilliant pages in 
the records of microscopic research. 
There is a very interesting group of fungi, known as 
(i moulds,” found almost everywhere, for all organized matter 
undergoing chemical change supplies a fitting matrix for 
their development. The blue mould of cheese, the brick-red 
cheese-mould, and the scarlet or orange strata wdiich grow 
on tubers or roots stowed up for use, when commencing to 
decay, are familiar examples. The silk or cloth stored up in 
wardrobes, the meal and sugar in our kitchens, nay, the very 
glass of our windows, suffer from them in greater or less degree. 
Some of the species are developed with extreme rapidity, and 
a few years since, when the barrack bread was so much 
affected in Paris by a species of fungi, a very few hours were 
sufficient for its development, and the mould was in active 
growth almost before the bread was cold; indeed, it was 
proved that the spores were capable of enduring a tem¬ 
perature of 212° Fah., without losing their power of germi¬ 
nation. Such facts, then, are no proof of spontaneous or 
equivocal generation. 
The occurrence of fungi in closed cavities has been often 
noticed. When milk is left a long time in the udder of the 
