THE BLOOD-LIKE PHENOMENA. 
113 
with the structure and peculiar properties of infusoria; and it would 
be very difficult to recognize a shrivelled rotifera, and particularly to 
discern its species, I refrain from a full refutation. I make the re¬ 
mark only, that I may, on the contrary, receive instructions from 
more accurate observations. 
To avoid illusion, I have, myself, with uncommon perseverance, 
and the greatest care, examined upwards of a thousand single flakes 
of snow and drops of rain and dew, the last two even in the north of 
Africa; hut in no one of them have I, at any time, observed living 
infusoria. From more accurate observations on the organization of 
infusoria, I have ascertained that the Rotatoria possess all the or¬ 
ganic systems of the higher animals, large eggs, and also nerves; 
that they are supplied with organs of nourishment, and repeatedly 
evacuate a granular mass, which cannot be taken for any thing else 
than eggs. The eggs of the rotatoria are so large, that they cannot 
escape observation if they are looked for; but it is otherwise with the 
eggs of the gastric animals (PolygastricaJ as I call the rest. These 
eggs have 2( J^, and probably of a line in diameter. Their mi¬ 
nuteness and transparency place them beyond the power of the mi¬ 
croscope. It is probable that these eggs, raised by currents of air and 
evaporation of water, may fill the atmosphere, and sustain little injury 
from aridity, because they appear to settle and develope themselves 
every where, and are perhaps perceptible in the organized matter, the 
pyrrhine of the atmosphere observed by chemists. But as to living 
infusoria and meteoric animals, or what are called Atmospheric Zoo¬ 
phytes, found in currents of air, we cannot believe in their existence 
until better evidence than the present is brought forward. The forms 
not hitherto satisfactorily observed are, 
1. Kolpodapyrum, Muller, according to Gleichen. 
2. lnderminate infusoria, according to Bory. 
3. Flucculariarediviva, 4 
4. Monas termo, > According to Professor Schultze. 
5. Monas lens, . j 
PoggendorfTs Annalen, No. 4, fur 1830, 
