'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎10] (237/258)

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APPENDIX D.
inconceivable smallness of tbe germs from wliich it is first generated, like the
green which makes its appearance over objects that have never been exposed to
the monsoon, yet present this color a few days after it has commenced, the germs
of this Nostoc might have been brought through the air to the place where they
nt the appoimed time for their germination passed into visible forms, which
having no earthly origin that the ignorant Scindians could conceive, and coming
into tangible masses just after a storm, not unnaturally led to the conclusion that
they must have been showered down from the heavens. Happily many of these
events which appeared miraculous to the ignorant for some wise purpose, and give
rise to scepticism among many at the present day, because they are not under*
stood, derive explanations from science which defy all attempt at disbelief. It was
wonderful to the Scindian to see what he could only conceive to be a substance
rained from heaven ; it is not less wonderful to the Naturalist, who can trace this
substance to its germs, to wonder even still more how the first germs was generated,
which uninterruptedly and unerringly goes on producing its like. Thus does the
Creator keep up his power of eliciting wonder and admiration from the most
ignorant to the most learned .—Bombay Times, April 7, 1856.
APPENDIX D.
ZOOLOGY.
A Guinea-worm of full growth will live several hours after extraction, if kept in
a moist state, and the young will live until the parent begins to decompose. The
adult guinea-worm is, therefore, much more tenacious of life than the young oin's.
The head, and half the anterior part of the bodj' of an old animal, may have dri-d up
outside the wound for several days, while the other part, with the young, still remains
living. This shows that its nutrition and vitality are kept up by imbibition through
the surface of the body, while the atrophied appearance of the alimentary canal indi
cates that it also is very’ little used, and the shreds on the surface of the integument,
that the animal has a direct union with the cellular tissue of the humau body.—
Transactions of the Medical and Physical Society. — Dr. Carter.
SroNGES — Animality .—As to the animality of the Freshwater Sponge, I think there
can be no doubt whatever. Look, for instance, at a ragged portion of it, torn off with
a needle, (under a magnifying glass of one-tenth of an inch focus,) and it will be seen
gradually to assume a spheroidal form; and, if there be a spiculum near, it will embrace
it within its substance, it may be seen even to approach it, and as it were spit itself upon
it ; still watcli it, and it may bear away the spiculum ; and then, regard its circum
ference. and on it will be observed little papilla, which gradually vary their form,
extending and retracting themselves, until one of them may be seen to detach itself
from the parent mass and go off to another object. Thi* little animal, one of the
group which it has left, may remain stationary on the second object, or descend to the
watch glass, assuming in its progress all forms that can be imagined, spheroidal or
polygonal ; while every point of its body appears capable of extending itself into a
tubular attenuated prolongation. When dead and dry on the watch-gla*s, it is
sometimes transparent, sometimes filled or surrounded by granuiar bodies, and though
frequently’’ irregular iu shape, its natural form appears to approach nearest to that of
a Florence flask, sometimes more sometimes lens globular ; it is then (though its size
varie* with its age) about the one-thousandth part of an inch in diameter, not includ
ing the elongated portion, which in length is about one quarter of the dianWer of the
body’, and apparently corrugated like the neck of the entozoon Cysticircus longicollis.
These transparent little sacs (thegemules of Grant and Hogg?) are sometimes filled
with green matter. They’ appear to be able to adapt themselves to any lonn that
may be convenient for them to assume, and when forcibly separated from each other