Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1880-01-23
The Perils of Drinking Water--some Gu
- rious Monsters.

In the big hall of the Cooper Union,
where several thousand persons were
gathered last evening to enjoy the
free entertainment, Prof. A. A. Starr
exhibited his microscopical menagerie.
Although Prof. Starr was announced
as a resident Of Westfield, N. j., he
began by saying that he was a native
of this city, and this accounts for his
knowing so well where to come when
looking for bugs. He said that he
would show 10000 different specimens
of insect life, and as he could not be
expected to find so many bugs in New
Jersey, the natural inference was that
he had been investigating street car.
" 1 am going to talk to you," said the
Professor, " about the largest sect in
the world-the insect. Manhattan
Island contains 600 varieties of animals
that cannot be seen with the naked
eye," and one or two varieties, he neg
lected to add, that cannot only be seen
but felt. The water we drink, he said,
is usually free from animalcule. There
are very few beasts, birds or fishes in
Croton water, usually; they are found
in stagnant water. A few Summers
ago the Croton water was yellow, dirty
and smelled bad. 1t was after long
drought, and two morning newspapers
published conclusive articles, showing
the causes of the impurities. Both ar
ticles were conclusive, but they were
entirely different. The water was
made impure by decaying vegetable
cule.
al have here" Prof. Starr contin-
ued, A." some flour and water, mixed.
The ladies knead flour and water into
dough, and let it stand over night; then
they knead it again in the morning; then
after it is baked, we all need it. 1 can
bring 10000 animals out of this glass
on the point of a needle, some of them
six feet long. am going to show you,
among other things, water-tiger and
cyclops."
The name of this latter animal
sounded like cyclops, but Prof. Starr
voice was heard so indistinctly across the
big hall that itmay have been a cyclOner.
He said, however, that it was so called
because it had only one eye; so the
reader can choose whichever would be
more probable-a one-eyed cyclops or
one-eyed cycloner.
81 have TAKEN" said the speaker,
twenty-seven parasites from a bee,
and ten from common house fly.
Every insect has its parasites, which
are lice. A smart man, who thought
it was indelicate even to mention a
louise, asked me some smart questions
about them one night. God made the
louise and he made that man and per-
haps he made mistake in making
either. We can tell bird by its par
asites. Fifty birds have fifty different
kinds of parasites, and we can distin-
guish them with the microscope.
This process of distinguishing things
by their parasites may prove valuable
one in New York. In few years we
will have experts who can tell an ele-
waited train from a ferry-boat merely
by running few of its parasites under
microscope.
90 will show you the abdomen of a
saw-fy," the Professor continued,
land this will illustrate the develop
ment theory. Flies originally had no
saws; but one day fly got few, and
found it was fine thing to have them,
so he kept them, and thereafter all saw
uleS Hhu saws. lueb6 uIIl6 luSoCIS all
go to show the wisdom of the Creator.
You might as well pick up watch and
say there is no such thing as watch
maker, as pick up an insect and say
there is no Creator. 1t is all nicely ar
ranged by nature with these insects,
Just as it is with human beings. The
big ones eat up the little ones; and the
little ones urn round and torment the
large ones"
Stretched over frame on the plat.
form was piece of muslin big enough
to have been one of the sheets of the
great bed of Ware, and in front of il
was q microscopic stereopticon. Some
body went behind the scenes to turn
down the lights, and turned them all
the way out, leaving the big hall in
darkness. The Professor then threw
upon the screen photograph of a
devil-fsh in the Aquarium. So il
looked, at least, but he said it was only
the leg of a common house spider. Il
had claw ON the end of it like lob,
ster, and bristles sticking out all over
it like the limbs of trees. 1t was dead.
Then came the foot Of tarantula,
fully big enough to have corns, and the
Meg and foot of a fly, and then
the leg of another fly. A speci
mon Of "the itch' was shown