ity to Bees, 69; Kensall Green Cemetery, 153; Ladies' "Pet Fancies," Dogs, 165; Ladies' Hair, 36; Love, general and particular, 331; "Man Overboard!" 173, 204; Memory, 296; Men and Brutes, 226; Mischief of Fun, 382; My First Salmon, 124; Nature's Goodness, 323; Night, A Fragment, 116; Notes by a Naturalist, 162, 180, 242, 290, 353, 385; Our Climate, 6; Our Codes of Health and Religion, 209, 344, 394; Pen, The, Danger resulting from its Use, 271; Poetry,-What is it? 68; Philosophy of Sleep, 250; Pictures of Society, by Forestiera, 337, 369; Power of Love, 330; Progress of the Seasons, 8, 24, 40, 56, 62, 72, 88, 104, 120, 137, 152, 168, 184, 216, 233, 249, 264, 280, 296, 328, 360, 392, 408; Rambles to-Sharpham Wood, 33; Wanstead and Hainault Forest, 139; Montgomery, North Wales, 144, 244; Banks of the Lea, 130; Shaking Hands, 204, 413; Sound, the Nature of, 242, 404; Spider, The, 275; Spring-Day in Winter, 373; Street Music, 91; Sun, The, 357; Tame Hares, 135; Town or Country? 286; Value of Reason, 257; Watering-place Delights and Follies, 169, 200; White Coral Islands, 84; Winter in the Olden Time, 415; Woman, a "Fairy," 201; Women, their Value, 342; Women, Powerful Influence of. 143; Wonders of the Insect World, 228; World, The, and its Inhabitants, 270; World we Live in, 183. Evil Company, 80 Fish, Artificial Fecundation of the Roe of, 139 Five Fingers, The, 183, Flies, Destroyed by Flowers, 285 Flowers, 59, 141 To Strike Cuttings of, 364 Forget me Not, Origin of the, 123 GALL, Dr.. His Celebrated Work, 328 Gold-Fish, Odd Feat of a, 158 Grapes, How to Ripen Early, 189 "Grave of Annie!" 154 Green-eyed Monster, The, 379 Grouse, A curious Hybrid, 218 Gutta Percha Tree, 236 Hares, Tame, 135 Harmony of Colors in a Garden, 237 Harvest of 1852, Joys of the, 137 Harvest Moon, The, 317 Dependent on Light and Sun, 43 and Chloroform, 349 Hyacinth, Management of the, 309 Remarkable Descent of, 218, 253 Jackdaw, A Remarkable, 410 John Bull, "proved to be mad," 329, 361, 362 Ladies, their Dress, and remarkable Taste, 88 141 London and its Public Conveyances, 268, 282 Long Faces,-Out of Date, 121 Love and Friendship, very different Things, 110 Lungs, Development of the, 412 Mackerel, The, 119 Magnet, The, 142 Man, a Semi-Savage, 227, 285 Mechanism of the Eyes of Birds, 295 Mind's Expanse, The, 192 Influence on the Body, 111 MISCELLANOUS PARAGRAPHS. Ages Passed Away, 350; Authorship, 355; Be Merry and Wise, 414; Beauty, 186, 335; Beneficence of Nature, 220; Benevolence, 416; Blue Glass for Hot-houses, 333; Case of Conscience, 345; Californian Onions, 333 Charity, 318; Child, The, we live for, 240; Clove, The, 411; Cold in the Arctic Regions, 237; Confined Air, 397; Contentment, 240, 325; Corns, A Cure for, 333; Curious Bill of Costs, Nettles, converted into Cloth, 333 New Regulation of Time by the Electric Ball, 126 Picnics, 25, 74 Pigs, Sagacious, 188 Swift of Foot, 365 Plants in Bed-rooms, 380 for Pillar Decoration, 411 POETRY. Age of Cruelty, 384; August in London, 89; Au- Popular Discussions-Booksellers' Question, The, Pride and Humility, 199 Rabbits, 15, 45 net, 302, 318; Journey to London, 13; Lion, the King of Dogs, 246, Olive Hathaway, 158; Particular People, 126; People of Importance, 334; Philosophers and Philosophy, 397; Pleasure Party in July, 101; Slow People, 222; Two Shining Characters,-Grant Thorburn and Jenny Lind, 206 Tallow Greaves for Fattening Animals, 267 Toad, The, 267, 283, 315, 332, 394 Tobacco and its Victims, 383 Two Full-Moons of July, 1852, 88 Urtica, 391 THE UNIVERSAL FAMILY PAPER FOR INTER-COMMUNICATIONS ON NATURAL HISTORY-POPULAR SCIENCE-THINGS IN GENERAL. Conducted by WILLIAM KIDD, of Hammersmith, AUTHOR OF THE FAMILIAR AND POPULAR ESSAYS ON "NATURAL HISTORY;" "BRITISH SONG BIRDS; "BIRDS OF PASSAGE;" "INSTINCT AND REASON;" "THE AVIARY," &c. wwww "THE OBJECT OF OUR WORK IS TO MAKE MEN WISER, WITHOUT OBLIGING THEM TO TURN OVER FOLIOS AND QUARTOS.-TO FURNISH MATTER FOR THINKING AS WELL AS READING."-EVELYN. are determined not by their will, but by the action of the medium in which they move; ANIMALCULES AND THEIR INSTINCTS. that they have neither head, eyes, muscles, Minute and marvellous creations these! Their lives ALL ECSTACY, and quick cross motion. MONTGOMERY. Of all the GROUPS OF ANIMALS, those of the least consequence, one would think, must be those that for the most part escape the inquiring eye, unless aided by a microscope. The infusories, or as they have been also called animalcules, microscopic animals, acrita, or indiscernibles, amorpha or without form, are of this description. These wonderful little creatures, though they are everywhere dispersed, remain like seeds, without apparent life or motion, perhaps after animation has been suspended for years, till they come in contact with some fluid, when they are immediately reanimated, move about in various directions, absorb their proper nutriment, and exercise their reproductive powers according to the law of their several natures. Yet these little animals, though in some respect they exhibit no slight analogy to vegetables, are not only distinguished from them by their irritability, but likewise by their organisation, and powers of locomotion and voluntary action. Their mode of reproduction, however, is not far removed from that of some vegetables; they are spontaneously divisible, some longitudinally and others transversely, and these cuttings, if they may be so called, as in the Hydra or common Polype, become separate animals. They are also propagated by germs, and some appear to be viviparous. The species of Vibrio, found in diseased wheat by M. Bauer, is oviparous, as is evident from his observations and admirable figures. Lamarck indeed regards them as having no volition, as taking their food by absorption like plants; as being without any mouth, or internal organ; in a word, as transparent gelatinous masses, whose motions VOL. II. vessels, nerves, nor indeed any particular determinable organ, whether for respiration, generation, or even digestion. On account of these supposed negative characters, they were called by De Blainville, Agastria, or stomachless, as having no intestines; but Ehrenberg, who has studied them in almost every climate, has discovered, by keeping them in colored waters, that they are not the simple animals that Lamarck and others suppose, and that almost all have a mouth and digestive organs, and that numbers of them have many stomachs. Spallanzani, and other writers that preceded Lamarck, had observed that their motions evidently indicated volition: this appeared from their avoiding each other and obstacles in their way; from their changing their direction, and going faster or slower as occasion required; from their passing suddenly from a state of rest to motion without any external impulse; from their darting eagerly at particles of infused substances; from their incessantly revolving on themselves without a change of place; from their course against the current; and from their crowding to shallow places of the fluid in which they are: each species seems also to exhibit a peculiar kind of instinct. Lamarck thinks all this delusion; proceeding from errors in judgment, and the result of prejudices inducing people readily to believe what accords with their persuasions. But to apply this remark to such observers as Spallanzani, &c., is drawing rather largely on the credulity of his readers, who might very justly change the tables and apply it to himself, who is certainly as much chained by system as any one can be. Admitting that the observations of Spallanzani just stated record facts, it appears clearly to follow from them that these animals have volition, and therefore cannot properly be denominated apathetic, or insensible. The fact that they almost all have a mouth and a digestive system, many of them eyes, and some rudiments of a nervous one, implies a degree, more or less, of sensation in them all, and consequently that they have all-whether it be molecular and diffused in their substance, or confined to particular organs-I say that they have all a nervous influence and excitement sufficient for their several wants, corresponding with their several natures. These minim animals may be said almost to be universally dispersed; they inhabit the sea, the rivers, and other waters; are supposed to float in the air; they are found in the blood and urine; in the tartar of the teeth; in animal substances; in vinegar; in paste; in vegetable substances; in fruits, seeds, and grain; in sand; amongst tiles; in wells, on mountains, &c. Their numbers are infinite; hundreds of thousands may be seen in a single drop of water; their minuteness is extreine, some being not more than one-two thousandth part of a line in length, and yet these atoms of animals have a mouth and several stomachs! Let a man, says Dalyell, the translator of Spallanzani, conceive himself in a moment conveyed to a region where the properties, and the figure and motions of every animal are unknown. The amazing varieties of these will first attract his attention. One is a long slender line; another an eel or serpent; some are circular, elliptical, or triangular; one is a thin flat plate; another like a number of reticulated seeds; several have a long tail, almost invisible; or their posterior part is terminated by two robust horns; one is like a funnel; another like a bell, or cannot be referred to any object familiar to our senses. Certain animalcules can change their figure at pleasure: sometimes they are extended to immoderate length, then almost contracted to nothing; sometimes they are curved like a leech, or coiled like a snake; sometimes they are inflated, at others flaccid; some are opaque, while others are scarcely visible from their extreme transparence. No less singular is the variety of their motions; several swim with the velocity of an arrow, so that the eye can scarcely follow them; others appear to drag their body along with difficulty, and move like the leech; and others seem to exist in perpetual rest; one will revolve on its centre, or the anterior part of its head; others move by undulations, leaps, oscillations, or successive gyrations;-in short, there is no kind of animal motion, or other mode of progression, that is not practised by animalcules. Their organs are equally various. Some appear to take their food by absorption, having no mouth; to this tribe belong what have been called vinegar eels: others have a mouth and several stomachs, but no orifice for the transmission of their excrements; others, again, have both a mouth and anal passage, and what is wonderful, in such minute creatures, sometimes as many as forty or fifty stomachs: though many are without eyes, others are furnished with these useful organs, some having one, others two, others three, and others four; some have processes resembling legs. In the second class of these animals, the Rotatories, to which the wheelanimalcules belong, the internal organisation approaches to that of the higher classes, for they exhibit the rudiments of a nervous system; their alimentary canal is simple; they have a branching dorsal vessel, but without a systole and diastole; their pharynx is usually furnished with mandibles, which are sometimes armed with teeth. The mouth of the majority, especially amongst the rotatories, is fringed with ray-like bristles, which Cuvier thinks are connected with their respiration. This circumstance of a circle of rays surrounding the oral orifice, is found in the polypes and several other animals of a higher grade. Their use in the present wheel-animalcules, is by their rotation to instance, I speak more particularly of the produce a current in the water to the mouth of the animal, bringing with it the still more minute beings which constitute its food. Organisation so complex, and life, and spontaneous motion, and appetite, and means to satisfy it, and digestion, and nutrition, and powers of reproduction in animals of such infinite minuteness! Who can believe it? Yet so it is, and that each of these should be varied in the different tribes and genera; that these less than the least of all the creatures that present themselves to the observation of mankind, and which till within a century or two were not suspected to exist, should out-number, beyond all statement of numbers, all the other animals together that people the whole globe; that they should probably enter into us and circulate in our blood, nestle between our teeth, be busy everywhere, and perceived nowhere, till the invention of the microscope drew aside the veil between us and these entities, and we saw how God had filled all things with life, and had based the animal kingdom upon living atoms, as well as formed the earth and the world of inert ones! But to us, the wondrous spectacle is seen and known only in part; for those that still escape all our methods of assisting sight, and remain members of the invisible world, may probably far exceed those that we know! We may conclude that this vast, or rather infinite host of animalcules, was not created merely to be born and die; was not sown, as it were, over every part of the earth's surface, lurking in seeds, and other vegetable and |