the rotifera

not those huge animals, on earth as well as in sea, who can scarcely drag the
weight of their frames—not these alone declare the glory of the Almighty. No ! the
smallest also show, just as distinctly, the perfections of their Creator. Yea! one may
say, these even more than those ! A great church clock is certainly a wonderful machine,
but a pocket watch—a watch in a ring—is yet more so, and conduces to the greater fame
and glory of its maker."
His description of his chief discovery, that of his Crown Polyp (Stephanoceros
Eichhornii) is very amusing. " I found," he says, " this extraordinary and marvellously
formed animal first in 1761, on July 20, on a water plant, which had been standing some
weeks in water. I saw that there was something on the plant which was quite unknown
to me. I moved the glass, in order to see if it was something alive, and if it would draw
itself together, which happened, to my delight; therefore I examined it through a lens,
but it appeared to me, through this, just like an orange flower which was not yet closed,
but which now drew itself together, and now outspread itself. All this stirred up in me
a great desire to see this new animal under the glass, but that required skill to get it
out, as the glass vessel in which it was, was nearly an ell high, and this animal was right
at the bottom. I tried first with the quill of a feather to bring it to the top, but it was
continually lost to the eye by shutting itself up. At last I succeeded with a little wire
hook in drawing out the plant on which it obviously was, and as soon as I could reach
it with the scissors I snipped off a tiny stem, and that brought me out the whole animal
unharmed. I placed it at once under the magnifying glass, and saw this matchless
creature as it is shown in the engraving." 1 What a pleasant picture this is of the
grave pastor fishing away with a quill pen to fetch up Stephanoceros from the bottom of
a glass beaker a yard and a quarter high !
About the same time as Eichliorn, flourished the great Danish naturalist, 0TH0
FREDERIC MULLER. He was an excellent botanist and zoologist, and published
works on many subjects. He wrote on the Flora and Fauna of Denmark, on Fungi, on the
Hydrachnae, and on Fresh-water and Marine Worms ; but his chief delight was in the
Infusoria, and his posthumous work, " Animalcula Infusoria Fluviatilia et Marina, &c."
1786, was the first that brought this new kingdom to the knowledge of the naturalist.
The "Animalcula Infusoria" contains the descriptions and figures of about fifty
Rotifera, among which are Lacinularia, Hydatina, Scaridium, Triarthra, Brachionus,
Anurcea, Pterodina, Euchlanis, Dinocharis, Stephanops, and Mastigocerca. More than
half of Muller's species were new when published; and his figures, taken from life, are
beautifully drawn on copper by himself. Of course there is a great lack of detail in the
drawings of the internal structure of the animals, but they are an immense advance on
those of Eichliorn, the outlines being usually both spirited and faithful.
Muller's text, too, is as good as his figures. It is the work not only of a naturalist,
but of a thoughtful and learned man ; and both the " Animalcula Infusoria " and his previous
work, " Yermium Terrestrium et Fluviatilium," abound with admirable and striking
passages. In the latter, he thus begins his dissertation on the Infusoria : " The world
of the invisible, a world shut to our ancestors, was first entered about a hundred years
ago. It breeds monsters of unheard-of form and manner of life, it abounds in miracles
as much as do the remote Indies ; but is explored with lesser peril, for it lies everywhere
at our very feet, and is not sought out for gold.
" Each was explored with great slaughter of its inhabitants ; the one often resisted
by wasting the lives of its aggressors, the other had no defence but patience.
" This we owe to the needle, which joined two hemispheres together; that to the
lens, which images alike the solar spots and the infusoria, the widest apart of all things.
" In this interval what indeed is great, what little ? Man: for he thinks and suffers."
L. J0BL0T styles himself, " Professeur Royal en Matli^matiques, de l'Academie Royale
de Peinture et Sculpture, demeurant sur le Quayde lTIorloge du Palais, au gros Raisin."
1 See PI. B, fig. 14.
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