Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-01-03
miscellaneous
M s &.

IN tho very NUMBER Oh inc etemeDtS On WHICH the
respective sciences are founded to Wit, the seven
notes of gamut, and the seven prismatic colors into
which an angular bit of glass dissects n ray of
sunlight. Amongst distinguished amateurs who
have been accom- lished simultaneously in the
arts that appeal to the ear and the eve. | will
mention no other names than those of Kitchener.
who went so far as to adapt a melody to bubble aud
squeak, and of Coddington, who was senior wrang-
Ter and an admirable harpist, All ] want now is
to point out the occurrence of q corresponding
modification in musical art as influenced by mod
ern musical instruments, and in the visual power
attainable by man as developed by improved
adaptations Of perfected lenses.
In ancient music, a breve, that is to say n short
note, was subdivided into two semibreves tits
halves), and into four mimins or least notes 1.-THE
halves of semibreves), as the extreme of melodic
rapidity. The giant of harmony never dreamt of
urging his pace to perform the steps now executed
by many twinkling feet. A minim was the &C.
knowledged subdivision OF musical sound. as TO its
temporal duration, till crotchets were invented.
Now, breves have gone the way Of mammoth and
megatheriums q semibreve is q rairety, except
when held by the unfaltering voice of the immor.
tai organ; but for ordinary composers, for popular
ditties, for operas which take the town by storm
and keep possession of it during their 1eeting
day, miuim, once the least, is now practically the
longest extension of tone. tits parted and por-
toned out into crotchets, quavers, and semiquavers;
while these again are subjected to subdivision, till
they are chopped up and minced and pounded into
double-demi-semiquavers and finer still-till they
reach the enthusiastically small fractions of sound
the quick-dartibg grace-notes and flashing
ornaments-in short, the musical animalcules and
Dfusoria-which are the delight of modern threats
and modern fingers.
While musical performers were practising hard
to perform minim passages with proper agility,
naturalists were straiuing their eyes to get a peep
at their organised minims-mites and such like
beyond which they had little hopes of penetrating
further and deeper into the mysteries of animated
nature. A flea or a louise was to them a very
small thing indeed to investigate in detail an
itch insect, or a parasite on another insect, was a
material minim, or the least Of the little. The
discoyerer of the circulation of the blood, never
lived to see it circulate. Now, it is but a poor
microscope which will not show the ~globules
in blood and their circulation--say in the web
of a frogs foot-is a spectacle which it is far
from difficult to exhibit, and that without serious
hardship or injury to the frog itself. Our optical
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES are creatures which give
every evidence of their enjoyment of life: although
ten thousand Of them may take up no more room
than that occupied by a grain of ordinary sand,
A dab of ditch-water on a slip of glass is at this
moment inviting me to throw down my pen, to
admire the number and varity of its inhabitants.
There are really minims and lnin~imissimums-all,
too, apparently beasts of prey. l see the larger
swallow the less which are afterwards beheld,
through the transparent coats of their devourers'
stomachs, 20 be struggling in vain against their
fate. But, remembering the acute connunorum,
What is smaller than a mites mouth? Answer:
That which goes into ii. | conclude that the eyes
of my most atomic minims can behold coveys OF
game and shoals of prey which to me remain in
visible. And, then, each of these least things is
endowed with life and motion, and must be made
up Of muscles, nerves, II skin, intestines, and
circulating fluids, or, at least, of parts analogous
to such so that however minute they may be
themselves, they are composed of members
minuter still. Their progression, again, is mostly
accomplished by means Of countless bristles, or
ella, which flicker backwards and forwards with a
feathering motion, like the oars of a boat. The
ella may be seen vibrating over the entire bodies
of some animalcules, like a crop of barley on the
surface of a field waving in the summer wind.
Judge whether the word smallest be anything more,
as far as any definite meaning is concerned, than a
Cood.natured concession to popular forms of
speech We now know that the realms of life are
boundless, If not in magnitude, at least in little
ness. The alchymy Of optical skill has ~ansmute
n phial of turbid fluid into a golden treasury of
facts and differences.
1t is vulsarly supposed that when things cease
10 be visible to the naked eye, there is an end
to measurement; all further speculations touching
their magnitude granting things invisible to
have magnitude,-are superfuous and a complete
waste of time. When a village dame clearly sees
nothing on a given patch of tale or glass, even
with her spectacles astride her nose, she would
consider it madness were you to tell her that the
proportions of large and less still continue to
exist within that boundary, beyond her ken: while
the superlative least has never yet been found.
but look NJ tnlS DracklsH uTOp U WuleI, huiOh &c
part of an iron-ladleful l scooped up the other day
out of a ruined sanded.up sea port, long deserted
BY human inhabitants. Ii is a pearly globule, the
Ligness Of a good fat dewdrop, and clear, except
that by looking sharp you can perceive a few
specks, which are merely bits of dirt and rubbish.
Ilet my spherical little ~fsh-pond fall gently on a
thin strip Of glass, and submit it to the microscope.
In the small quantity of saline fluid which will
hang to the tip of a common goosequlll, l have
CAPTURED a multitude Of wild creatures here con-
Gnod xvhoea hulk and ststura yary AS much as
those of the birds and beasts in WombelPs me-
nagerie.
The largest l~ive-lion which I see as yet. has the
semblance of a great garden-slug, but is fatter and
broader. He glides gracefully along, searching
with his mouth to the right and left for-he best
knows what. Now he turns himself, and swims
sidewise, SO as to give me a capital profile OF his
person. He is marvellously lean,-not a bit of
fat about him and so transparent that l can
behold, through him, every object over which he
passes. He is not at all disgusting in his looks,
and is free from every symptom of sliminess. His
surface chances with pearly hues, not from any
defective achromatism of my objectlves,-in plain
English, from any fault of my glasses,-bnt, from
the extreme thinness of his outer coat, as is the
case in soap bubbles and films on water. He
glides on his way in pleased content, and is soon
out of our field of view. We might follow him by
hitching the slide on which the drop of salt water
rests, Int let him gang his gait for, enter, a band
of walters, not keeping time, nor adhering very
strictly to any set figure. They make me giddy to
look at them as they whirl and spin. To avoid
being utterly bewildered, L will fix my attention on
tho movements of a single individual. The present
ballet-girl, a ~coryphoe who dances in the front
rank, has body like a short-horn carrot only
pellucid as crystal at her root end size has a
pointed radicls, tip. or movable peg. Where the
carrot leaves would sprout, there is a diadem of
long rays. which vibrate rapidly, but not too rapid
ly to be visible. By these evidently the dancer
rises and sinks, revolves and rolls; they are
probably the moustache which surrounds her
mouth, aud also the knife and fork with which she
eats her dinner, as we'll as the fingers she catches
1t with. She is out of sight, and-whisk who
was that who ran across the room ? swift as a
swallow, but large and seemingly spherical ?
There. 1t stops for one instant, and | am in the
nresence. l suppose. of one of the ~rotifers. OF