Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-02-08
Wonders of the Microscope.

TIE revelations of the microscope are
so marvellous and unexpected that they
seem to place US on the horder-line of the
miraculous, so far are they not only be-
yond what could be reached by the naked
eve, but even by the widest range of i'm
aglnation. \ large field for the gratifica-
ton of inquirers in this department has
recently been opened by NJ. Pouchet, an
eminent French s0CGnt, in work entitled,
ssThe Universe; or, The Infinitely Great
and the Infinitely Little" We learn from
him that it is possible to enlarge sur
face &. .OOO, 900 times. The microscope
has made astonishing revelations of the
physiology and habits of animalcules far
Guiding our unassisted vision, 10000 of
which could be ranged along the length
of an inch, with organizations as cOmpli-
Gated as that of man. OF their stomachs
20 are an ordinary allotment for one indi-
yidual, and these are all coated with teeth,
so that mastication and digestion consti-
tute almost one process. Minute as are
the blood-cavities for the circulation of
this fluid, they are fifty times as large and
strong, in proportion, as the hearts OF the
horse and OK. With so liberal supply
OF material furnished by their numerous
sometimes as many as 100, constantly
working stomacks for the making
Oh anu us
sion to all parts by such
powerful machinery, the vitality and
vital actions of these little beings must be
yery great There are no limits to their
range of existence, they being found alike
in the tropics and the polar regions, and
a more annoying feature in their history,
in the blood of man and other animals,
and in the fibers of our muscles. They
swarm in myriads in our mouths, for
tunate for us if they do not go farther,
and stop by forming with their skeletons
the tartar of our teeth. The animalcules
are not, therefore, TO be found in infusions
only, and NJ. POuchet properly objects to
the name ''infusoria," and he prefers call
ing them ''microzoa" or ''protozoa. They
belong to several different orders, the in
dividuals of which have little in common
except extreme minuteness. The more re-
markable, if we look to the practical re-
suits of their industry, are those microZoa,
which possess the power of extracting
silica or lime out of sea water to form their
skeletons. To find the great work per-
formed by the infinitely little we have
only to look, as the result of this manu-
facture or elimination, at the extensive
chalk and much of the siliceous strata of
the globe, in, for instance, the tripolls
of Bohemia and the Isle of France. We
I NAV regard IleSe VAST dCCuiluldtlOnS,
whether made on the land or at the depths
! of the ocean, as but the cemeteries OF
animalcules, millions of whose corpses
would not have made up cubic inch.
! Under certain circumstances the organic
portions do not readily pass away, but
| form certain soils which contribute to the
nourishment of man. OF these are the de-
posits of mountain meal of Lapland, of
| Decerner in Sweden, of Ebsdorf in the
Luxembourg Heath, and of Santatlora in
| Tuscany. Hundreds of wagon loads of
/ this mountain meal are annually consum-
/ ed in Sweden. Minute polypi, or sea
anemones, each one of which is not larger
than pins head, are architects of islands
and reefs, some of the latter thousand
miles in length. The same learned and
ingenious exhibitor introduces 10 cur
notice the monads, true atomic bodies, OF
which q drop of water sometimes contains
more than there are inhabitants on the
earth. In the same easy and popular
manner he places before his readers the
marvels of the insect world and the vege
table kingdom, the geology and atmOs
phere of the earth, and the sideral uni
verse; Philadelphia Ledger.