Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-01-25

WONDERS OF THE MIcRosCoPE-The reyela-
tiOns CT the microscope are so marvellous and
unexpected that they seem TO place us on the
border line of the miraculous SO far are they
not only beyond what could be reached bv the
naked eye, but even by the widest range Of i'm
agination. A large field for the qualification of
inquiTers in this department has been recently
opened by NJ. Pouchet, an eminent French sa-
want, IN work entitled The Universe; or, The
Infinitely Great and the Infinitely Little " We
learn from him that it is possible TO enlarge
surface 56000,O00 times. The microscope has
made astonishing revelations of the physiology
and habits of animalculeS far Guiding our I'M
assisted vision, 10000 OF which could be ranged
along the length of an inch, with organizations
as complicated as that of man. OF their stomachs
twenty are an ordinary allotment for one indi-
vidual, and these are all coated with teeth, so
that masticatiOn and digestion constitute almost
one process. Minute rs are the blood-cavities for
the circulation of this fluid they are fifty times rs
large ard strong,in proportion the hearts the
horse and the OK. With so liberal supply of
material furnished by the numerous, some
times as many as 100, constantly working Stom-
aehs for the making of blood, aid its transmits
sion to all parts by such powerful machinery,
the vitality and vital action of these little beings
must be very great There are no limits to
their range OF existence, they being found alike
in the tropics and the polar regions, and more
annoying feature in their history, in the blood of
man and other animals, and in the fbres OF our
muscles. They swarm in myriads in our
mouths, fortunate for us if they do not 90 far
ther,and stop by forming with their skeletons the
tartar OF onr teeth. The animalcules are
not, therefore, 10 be found in infusions
only, and NJ Pouchet properly objects to
the name "inlusori," and he prefers calling
them "microzoa" or "protozoa." They belong
to several different orders, the individuals
Of which have little in common except extreme
minuteness. The more remarkable if we look
TO the practical results of their industry are
those microzOa, which possess the power of eX-
tracing sellca 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 manufacture or elimi-
nation, at the extensive chalk and much OF the
siceous strata CT the globe in, for instance, the
tnpois of Bohemia and the Isle of France We
may regard these vast accumuationS, 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 a
cubic inch.
Under certain circumstances the organic por-
tons do not readily pass away, but form certain
soils which contribute to the nourishment of
man. OF these are the deposits of mountain
meal OF Lapland, of Degerner in Sweden, of
EbSdOri in the LuXcmburg heath and of Santa
fora in Tuscany Hundreds of wagon loads of
this mountain meal are annually consumed in
Sweden. Minute poyp, or sea anemones, are
architects of islands and reefs, some of the
latter thousand miles in length The same
learned and ingenious exhibitor introduces to
our notice the mOnads, true atomic bodies, of
which 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 vegetable kingdom, the geology and
atmosphere of the earth and the sidereal uni
verSe.-Phjadelphia Ledger.