Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-04-04
Wonders Of the Mieroscope.

OF living beings inhabiting our
world. When they speak Of the ami.
NAL creation, they have in mind only
those larger creatures that can be seen
with the unaided eye never once imagin.
ing that all these taken together are but
as drop to the ocean, or, as o grain Of
sand to the entire sea.shore.
Nor is this true only in respect to
nun,be, s, but the aggregate bulk Of these
minute creatures will be found to be
far greater than at first supposed their
remains often constituting large part
of great mountains and extensive is
lands, and sometimes spreading over
vast continents in one solid mass Of
great thickness.
Let us begin with the well.known
FRAGMENT OF CHALK.
Nothing would seem, Mt first view,
more unlikely to furnish any wondrous
revelations than this ; but let us see.
We will take small fragment and soak
it in wafer, and when softened, with a
fine brush, we will gently reduce it toa
powder, and then place small guam
tity of it under a microscope. And
now what do we see? To our amaze.
MI nt We find this fine powdered chalk
composed of the perfectly formed shells
of myriads Of minute creatures, SO small
that billions of them are necessary to
m AXE single cubic inch ! These ami.
malcul@ existed many thousand years
ago, and on dying, they sank to the
bottom of the ocean, and their shells
alone are now found condensed and
changed into the substance chalk.
In some parts of the old world theTA
is found powder.like substance caliedV
" mountain meal" because the peas.
antry, in times of scarcity, mingle it
with the food. This, also, is found by
the microscope to be composed of the
shells of insects, and so small that H..
600 of them, placed side by side, would
only measure one cubic inch in length!
This mountain meal is not composed
of shells alone, for it is found to be nu-
tritious, and is often eaten by the poor
without mixing with other food, which
proves that some other part OF the ami.
NAL has been retained with the shell.
So again we find under the micro.
scope that certain kind of limestone is
almost entirely of the shells
OF another class of small marine insects,
and this limestone is found over space
eighteen hundred miles in extent.
This shows very clearly that the seas
and oceans Of antiquity were very
densely populated with these animal.
Guile, and we are quite sure that there
are almost If not quite as many in exist
ence to-day.
But let us look in another direction,
and we shall see still greater wonders
while using this powerful instrument.
Let us take some of the living insects
OF to-day for instance, the common
house fly. On examining the two brown
lobes on the side of the head of this
insect, which are generally regarded
as the ttpo eyes Of the fly, we find in
stead Of f,Oo eyes, no less than two thou.
sand on each side OF the fy's head, max.
ing four thousand in all.
But startling as 10 this discovery, IT,
are others far more 90 In reserve foxEw.
On examining the dragon-fy we find
twenty five thousand distinct, perfectly
formed eyes in the head Of this active
creature, while the mordella has no less
than fifty thousand perfect organs Of
sight, twenty. five thousand on each side
of it's head. Let no one suppose for amo-
ment that this is mere conjecture. I'm
der the microscope they are all as dis
tinctly seen rs the two eyes of the OBJ
server, and can easily be counted, as
they frequently have been.
II it be asked what is the use of 80
many eyes, we can only answer that
probably one reason 10 that, as the food
Of these insects is often floating in the
and ia so minute in size
they require numerous microscopic
eyes to see it at short distances, and in
different directions, for only eyes OF
microscopic power would enable them to
see their food in such small quantities.
Now when we remember that each
one of these visual orbs Is made upon
precisely the same principle rs our own,
we have new illustration Of the power
of Omnipotence to make so many and
so minute and perfect organs Of sightin
such small space.
But the microscope reveals another
wonder. Perhaps You have often won
dered to see a large, strong horse-fy
helplessly while enveloped
in q spiders thread, end that thread 80
small as to be seen with difficulty. Or,
what is still more surprising, you have
seen, perhaps, large beetle success
fully captured and held fast by the
same fine and almost invisible threads.
Now the secret OF the remarkable
strength of these threads is In the fact,
which the microscope so strikinSly
brings to light, that they are mad9kY
OF several hundreds OF threads-<aAl "a
some instances of more than thousand
which are all twisted together the 1
moment they issue from the spinning
OF the spiders body. 1
This instrument very distinctly shows
us this wonderful machinery, SO that
we can easily see the separate threads
issuing from the separate and numerous
tubes that make up this spineret OF the
spider, as the spinning apparatus Is
called.
Not only this, but we see also that
certain threads are k,,otted at regular
intervals OF space, where they cross
other threads in the web, so as to pre-
vent them slipping, and thus they give
such great strength'to ii that It holds
various insects much larger than the