As this little book is intended to be no more than an introduction to an agreeable branch of microscopical study, it is to be hoped it will not require a formal preface; but a few words may be convenient to indicate its scope and purpose. The common experience of all microscopists confirms the assertion made by Dr. Goring, that the most fascinating objects are living creatures of sufficient dimensions to be easily understood with moderate magnification; and in no way can objects of this descript

PLAIN HINTS ON MICROSCOPES AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. Powers that are most serviceable—Estimated by focal length—Length of body of microscope and its effects—Popular errors about great magnification—Modes of stating magnified power—Use of an "Erector"—Power of various objectives with different eye-pieces—Examination of surface markings—Methods of illumination—Direct and oblique light—Stage aperture—Dark ground illumination—Mode of softening light—Microscope lamps—Care of the eyes. HE microscope is ra

JANUARY. Visit to the ponds—Confervæ—Spirogyra quinina—Vorticella—Common Rotifer—Three divisions of Infusoria—Phytozoa—Protozoa—Rotifera—Tardigrada—Meaning of these terms—Euglenæ—Distinction between animals and vegetables—Description of Vorticellæ—Dark ground illumination—Modes of producing it—The Nucleus of the Vorticellæ—Methods of reproduction—Ciliated Protozoa—Wheel bearers or Rotifers—Their structure—The common Rotifer—The young Rotifer seen inside the old one—An internal nursery—"Different

FEBRUARY. Visit to Hampstead—Small ponds—Water-fleas—Water-beetle—Snails—Polyps—Hydra viridis—The dipping-tube—A glass cell—The Hydra and its prey—Chydorus sphæricus and Canthocamptus, or friends and their escapes—Cothurnia—Polyp buds—Catching Polyps—Mode of viewing them—Structure of Polyps—Sarcode—Polyps stimulated by light—Are they conscious?—Tentacles and poison threads—Paramecium—Trachelius—Motions of Animalcules, whether automatic or directed by a will—Their restless character. T has been a

MARCH. Paramecia—Effects of Sunlight—Pterodina patina—Curious tail—Use of a Compressorium—Internal structure of Pterodina—Metopidia—Trichodina pediculus—Cothurnia—Salpina—Its three-sided box—Protrusion of its gizzard mouth. HE Paramecia , noticed in the last chapter, have increased and multiplied their kind without any fear lest the due adjustment between population and food should fail to be preserved. A small drop of the scum from the surface of the water in their bottle is an astounding sight

APRIL. The beautiful Floscule—Mode of seeking for Tubicolor Rotifers—Mode of illuminating the Floscule—Difficulty of seeing the transparent tube—Protrusion of long hairs—Lobes—Gizzard—Hairy lobes of Floscule not rotatory organs—Glass troughs—Their construction and use—Movement of globules in lobes of Floscule—Chætonotus larus—Its mode of swimming—Coleps hirtus—Devourer of dead Entomostraca—Dead Rotifer and Vibriones—Theories of fermentation and putrefaction—Euplotes and Stylonichia—Fecundity of

MAY. Floscularia cornuta—Euchlanis triquetra—Melicerta ringens—its powers as brickmaker, architect, and mason—Mode of viewing the Melicerta—Use of glass-cell—Habits of Melicerta—Curious Attitudes—Leave their tubes at death—Carchesium—Epistylis—Their elegant tree forms—A Parasitic Epistylis like the "Old Man of the Sea"—Halteria and its Leaps—Aspidisca Lynceus. AY , the first of summer months, and of old famous for floral games, which found their latest patrons in the chimney-sweeps of London, is

JUNE AND JULY. Lindia Torulosa—Œcistes Crystallinus—A professor of deportment on stilts—Philodina—Changes of form and habits—Structure of Gizzard in Philodina family—Mr. Gosse's description—Motions of Rotifers—Indications of a will—Remarks on the motions of lower creatures—Various theories—Possibility of reason—Reflex actions Brain of insects—Consensual actions—Applications of physiological reasoning to the movements of Rotifers and Animalcules. PRESSURE of other occupations prevented full use b

Walking one day down a lane leading towards Reigate, where the trees arched overhead, ferns grew plentifully in the sandy banks, and the sunlight flitted through the branches, and chequered the path, we came to a shallow pond, or great puddle, which crossed the way, and near the edge of the water the eye was struck with patches of crimson colour. On attempting to take up a portion of one of these patches the whole disappeared, although when the disturbance ceased the rich colour again clothed th

SEPTEMBER. Microscopic value of little pools—Curious facts in appearance and disappearance of Animalcules and Rotifers—Mode of preserving them in a glass jar—Fragments of Melicerta tube—Peculiar shape of Pellets—Amphileptus—Scaridium Longicaudum—A long-tailed Rotifer—Stephanoceros Eichornii—A splendid Rotifer—Its gelatinous bottle—Its crown of tentacles—Retreats on alarm—Illumination requisite to see its beauties—Its greediness—Richly-coloured Food—Nervous ganglia. CATTERED about Hampstead Heath

OCTOBER. Stentors and Stephanoceri—Description of Stentors—Mode of viewing them—Their abundance—Social habits—Solitary Stentors living in Gelatinous caves—Propagation by divers modes—Cephalosiphon Limnias—A group of Vaginicolæ—Changes of shape—A bubble-blowing Vorticella. CTOBER , the finest of our autumn months, is noted for usually granting the inhabitants of our dripping climate about twenty pleasant sunshiny days, and it is probably on this account somewhat of a favourite with the infusorial

NOVEMBER. Characteristics of the Polyzoa—Details of structure according to Allman—Plumatella repens—Its great beauty under proper illumination—Its tentacles and their cilia—The mouth and its guard or epistome—Intestinal tube—How it swallowed a Rotifer, and what happened—Curiosities of digestion—Are the tentacles capable of Stinging?—Resting Eggs, or "Statoblasts"—Tube of Plumatella—Its muscular Fibres—Physiological importance of their structure. URING the fag end of last month I observed some fr

DECEMBER. Microscopic Hunting in Winter—Water-bears, or Tardigrada—Their comical behaviour—Mode of viewing them—Singular gizzard—A compressorium—Achromatic condenser—Mouth of the Water-bear—Water-bears' exposure to heat—Soluble albumen—Physiological and chemical reasons why they are not killed by heating and drying—The Trachelius ovum—Mode of swimming—Method of viewing—By dark-ground illumination—Curious digestive tube with branches—Multiplication by division—Change of form immediately following

CONCLUSION. HE creatures described in the preceding pages range from very simple to highly complicated forms, and in describing them some attention has been paid to the general principles of classification. The step is a wide one from the little masses of living jelly that constitute Amœbæ to the Rotifers, supplied with organs of sensation—eyes, feelers (calcars), and the long cilia in the Floscularians, which seem to convey impression like the whiskers of a cat—together with elaborate machinery