MARVELS OF POND-LIFE
OR,
A YEAR'S MICROSCOPIC RECREATIONS
AMONG THE
POLYPS, INFUSORIA, ROTIFERS, WATER-BEARS,
AND POLYZOA.
BY
HENRY J. SLACK, F.G.S.,
SECRETARY TO THE ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY;
AUTHOR OF
'THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESS IN HUMAN AFFAIRS,' ETC. ETC.
SECOND EDITION.
ILLUSTRATED WITH COLOURED PLATES AND NUMEROUS WOOD ENGRAVINGS.
LONDON:
GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS,
5, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCLXXI.
PRINTED BY J. E. ADLARD,
BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.
INTRODUCTION.
As this little book is intended to be no more than anintroduction to an agreeable branch of microscopical study,it is to be hoped it will not require a formal preface; buta few words may be convenient to indicate its scope andpurpose.
The common experience of all microscopists confirms theassertion made by Dr. Goring, that the most fascinatingobjects are living creatures of sufficient dimensions to beeasily understood with moderate magnification; and in noway can objects of this description be so readily obtained,as by devoting an occasional hour to the examination of thelittle ponds which are accessible from almost any situation.A complete volume of pond lore would not only be a bulkybook—much bigger than the aldermanic tomes which it isthe fashion to call "Manuals," although the great stonefists in the British Museum would be required to graspthem comfortably,—but its composition would overtask allthe philosophers of our day. In good truth, a tea-spoonfulof water from a prolific locality often contains a variety ofliving forms, every one of which demands a profoundand patient study, if we would know but a few thingsconcerning it.
To man, then, is a vast and a minute. Our minds acheat the contemplation of astronomical immensities, and weare apt to see the boundless only in prodigious masses,[iv]countless numbers, and immeasurable spaces. The CreativeMind knows no such limitations; and the microscopeshows us that, whether the field of nature's operation bewhat to our apprehension is great or small, there is nolimit to the exhibition of marvellous skill. If the "undevoutastronomer" be "mad," the undevout microscopistmust be still more so, for if the matter be judged by humansense, the skill is greater as the operation is more minute;and not the sun itself, nor the central orb round which herevolves, with all his attendant worlds, can furnish sublimerobjects of contemplation, than the miraculous assemblage offorces which make up the life of the smallest creature thatthe microscope reveals.
There is an irresistible charm in the effort to tracebeginnings in nature. We know that we can neversucceed; that each discovery, which conducts back towardssome elementary law or principle, only indicates how muchstill lies behind it: but the geologist nevertheless loves tosearch out the first or oldest traces of life upon our globe;and so the microscopist delights to view the simplestexhibitions of structures and faculties, which