Page:The fairy tales of science.djvu/257

 allowed to be an optical illusion produced by the motion of the two circular rows of cilia on the fore part of the body. These cilia lash the surrounding waters into a miniature whirlpool, into which innumerable animalcules are drawn, to be swallowed by the voracious rotifer, who is provided with a formidable set of crushing teeth, and a most efficient digestive apparatus. The movements of these strange animals are active and varied. Sometimes they will attach themselves by the tail to a fixed object, and set their cilia in motion to entrap unwary monads; then they will pack up their wheels and swim freely through the water, or crawl along a solid surface after the manner of a leech. Some of the rotifera may be completely dried up and preserved for an indefinite time, without the loss of their vitality. But put one of these withered animalcules in water, and in an hour's time you will see him return to life, though he may have been apparently dead for many years! The multiplication of the rotifera is extremely rapid, twenty-four hours being a sufficient period for an individual to be born, be developed, and to become itself a parent! The reader must not forget that all these wonderful facts are related of a living being not quite the thirty-sixth part of an inch in length—a mere speck in the visible world!

Let us pause for a moment in our examination, to reflect upon these marvellous revelations. How perfect are the works of the Divine Hand! Not