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"A drop of water." If I remember rightly, some ingenious writer has made a book with that title; and a very interesting book it may be. The drop of water is a microcosm-the world in miniature. Manifold are the creatures swimming, crawling, feeding, and fighting in it. Many of these moving atoms, which we mistake for animals, are really plants, and every day the number of these claimed by the botanists increases. Does this surprise you? Do you marvel how experienced men can fail to distinguish between a plant and an animal? The truth is, the distinction is sometimes impossible. One source of confusion is the vagabond and active nature of many plants, which lead a roving youth, before settling down into the stationary respectability of middle age. As roving youngsters, they are indistinguishable from animals; and until they have betrayed their origin by their subsequent history, we have no clue to their character. Is not this also true in our own world? We read by the light of splendid triumphs the significance of many an idle, wayward, dreamy boyhood, which alarmed parents and tutors with grim promise of the gallows, or general ruin.

"Take any drop of water from the stagnant pools around us," says Professor Rymer Jones, " from our rivers, from our

*

lakes, or from the vast ocean itself, and place it under your microscope; you will find therein countless living beings moving in all directions with considerable swiftness, apparently gifted with sagacity, for they readily elude each other in the active dance they keep up; and since viously exercise volition and sensation in they never come into rude contact, obguiding their movements. Increase the power of your glasses, and you will soon perceive, inhabiting the same drop, other animals, compared to which the former were elephantine in their dimensions, equally vivacious and equally gifted. Exhaust the art of the optician, strain your eyes to the utmost until the aching sense refuses to perceive the little quivering movement that indicates the presence of life, and you will find that you have not exhausted Nature in the descending scale. Perfect as our optical instruments now are, we need not be long in convincing ourselves that there are animals around us so small that in all probability human perseverance will fail in enabling us accurately to detect their forms, much less fully to understand their organisation. Vain, indeed, would it be to attempt by words to give anything like a

definite notion of the minuteness of these multitudinous races. the reader to divide an inch into 22,000 Let me ask parts, and appreciate mentally the value of each division: having done so, and not till then, shall we have a standard sufficiently minute to enable us to measure the microscopic beings upon the consideration of which we are now entering."

If we remember that a line is the twelfth of an inch, and that the Monas crepusculus of Ehrenberg is said to be the 2000th part of a line in diameter, we can understand the statement that a single drop of water may contain "five hundred millions of such individuals-a number equalling that of the whole human species earth."+ It is true that the majority now existing on the surface of the of these infusoria are plants, not animals, which somewhat lessens the wonder; but, even with this deduction, it remains sufficiently marvellous.

"Leeuwenhoek was little aware," says Professor Owen, "how large a prospect of organic life he was opening to our view, when, in the year 1675, he communicated to his scientific friends his

2 R

discovery of the little bell-shaped animalcule now known as one species of an immense class, and called the Vorticella convallaria. His observations were published in one of the early numbers of the Philosophical Transactions: much discussion on the subject ensued, and called forth the wit of the philosophers of the day. However, the records multiplied, and now we have obtained a view of the Infusoria, which shows them to be the most widely diffused, and by far the most numerous, of all the forms of organised life. Wherever Ehrenberg went in his travels with Humboldt, he there detected with his microscope some of the manifold forms of these animalcules; and wherever his pupils have repeated his observations, the same phenomena have been presented. When Sir James Ross and his companions, in accordance with their directions, took up the film from the surface of the Antarctic Sea, that film in its dried remains was found to consist of silicious cases of the Infusoria; in the mud brought up from the depths of the ocean, at the highest southern latitudes sounded by the deep-sea line, they were found; and they have also been detected in the sand adhering to specimens dredged up at

Melville Island by Captain Parry; so that from North to South Poles, and in all intervening latitudes, these animalcules are diffused, and extend the reign of animal life beyond that of the vegetable kingdom."

In this eloquent passage the reader

will now have to substitute the word

Infusorium for animalcule, since it has been proved that the majority of these organic beings are not animals at all; and the last clause of the last sentence must be modified. But what a picture it then presents! and

with what interest we follow the

Professor in his subsequent specula

tions:

"Consider," he says, "their incredible numbers, their universal distribution, their insatiable voracity; and that it is the particles of decaying vegetable and animal bodies which they are appointed to devour and assimilate. Surely we must in some degree be indebted to these ever-active scavengers for the salubrity of our atmosphere. Nor is this all: they perform a still more important office, in preventing the progressive diminution of the present amount of organised matter upon the earth. For

* OWEN: Lectures, p. 17.

when this matter is dissolved or suspended in water, in that state of comminution and decay which immediately precedes its final decomposition into the elementary gases, and its consequent return from the organic to the inorganic world, these wakeful members of nature's invisible police are everywhere ready to arrest the fugitive organised particles, and turn them back into the ascending stream of animal life. Having converted the dead and decomposing particles into their own living tissues, they themselves become the food of larger Infusoria, as, e. g. the Rotifera, and of numerous other small animals, which in their turn are devoured by larger animals; and thus a pabulum, fit for the nourishment of the highest organised beings, is brought back by a short route from the extremity of the realms of organic nature." +

Enough has been said to indicate the reach and interest of the study these Infusoria afford; and the student will find no lack of abundant material either for observation in the ponds, or for meditation in the writings of observers. The great debt which science owes to the patience of Ehrenberg, will be appreciated even by those who merely turn over the leaves of his magnificent work, and is recognised by all serious students : it is a debt which more than insures forgiveness for any errors he may that of the supposed complexity of orhave diffused. One general error is ganisation of most of these Infusoria. This has been repeatedly refuted, and was easy to refute. In general, his interpretation of what he saw seems to have been as unfortunate as his

observation was admirable. There was to many minds a sort of fascination in the idea of increasing the marvel by finding in these atoms an organisation as complex as that of the higher animals; and it received a sanction from the undeniable fact that a few of these (the Rotifers) really had some approach to organisation of a higher kind. But there are few observers who now believe that

muscles, nerves, organs of sense, or indeed " organs" of any kind, can be found in the vast majority of Infusoria; and when it is added that the majority have turned out to be of vegetable nature, the notion of organ

+ Ibid., p. 36.

isation analogous to that of higher animals vanishes into thin air.

In his recently-published Essay on Classification, Agassiz makes sad havoc with this supposed division of the Animal Kingdom, hitherto styled Protozoa :

"With reference to the Infusoria," he says, "I have long since expressed my conviction that they are an unnatural combination of the most heterogeneous beings. A large number of them, the Desmidieæ and Volvocinæ, are locomotive Algæ. Indeed, recent investigations seem to have established beyond all question the fact, that all the Infusoria Anentera of Ehrenberg are Alga. The Enterodela, however, are true animals, but belong to two very distinct types, for the Vorticellidae differ entirely from all others. Indeed they are, in my opinion, the only independent animals of that group; and so far from having any natural affinity with the other Enterodela, I do not doubt that their true place is by the side of the Bryozoa, among Molluscs, as I shall attempt to show. Isolated observations which I have been able to make

upon Paramecium, Opalina, and the like, seem to me sufficient to justify the assumption that they disclose the true nature of the bulk of this group. I have seen, for instance, a Planaria lay eggs out of which Paramecia were born, which underwent all the changes these animals are known to undergo up to the time of their contraction into a Chrysalis state; while the Opalina is hatched from Distoma's eggs." *

I may here borrow from my notebook of October 1856, an observation which has probably relation to that mentioned by Agassiz. Examining some leeches, less than the third of an inch in length, I was struck with the quantity of little bodies floating in the general cavity (peritoneal space), and seemingly endowed with spontaneous motion. On cutting one of the leeches in two, these bodies swam out, and revealed themselves to be Infusoria, very much resembling the Cercaria, but imperfect acquaintance with the Infusoria prevented my identifying the species. As there were no eggs visible in these

leeches at this time, I was disposed to conclude that these Infusoria were the embryos of the leech, but developed viviparously, instead of oviparously, as is commonly the case. The only alternative was to regard them simply as having passed into the body of the leech with the water; but now that the Cercaria is known to be the embryo of Distoma, that supposition loses its probability; and the Cercariform Infusoria I noticed in the leeches were most likely developed from the leech's eggs.

But not to make further excursions into science, let us content ourselves simply with watching the spectacle in this drop of water. Microscopic as all these creatures are, we notice grades of big and little even here. Not only do they prey on each other with a ferocity unsurpassed by their betters, but they also have their pa rasities, like their betters. What! parasites living on these atoms? So it is. Nature is sympathetic, and makes the whole world-food. Look at that elegant Vorticella-the bellshaped animalcule. It lives, you observe, parasitically on the body of that pretty water-flea, and has established a small colony of its kindred on that good "allotment." There it sticks, making a vortex in the water with its restless cilia, and drawing into its mouth any available food;

"Where the flea sucks, there suck I," is its motto; where the rambling, restless animal transports itself, there will this tenacious parasite be transported also; and so it sees the world. But observe it closely, when it has ceased to shrink up at contact with some foreign body, or "in alarm " at some vibration; it is now extended to its full length, and you perceive that in its turn this parasite has parasitic plants established on it. We have all laughed at Thackeray's poor Irishman having always some poorer Irishman living on him, as he lives on society; and here we see the very system carried on by the tiny denizens of that tiny ocean.

WE purpose to write something on the subject of the Competition System and the Genius of Cram. What we are about to say will be distasteful to a large number of readers, but it will perhaps induce them to think whether they have got hold of a living fact or a popular delusion. There is an idea abroad in these times -a very rampant and obtrusive ideathat no master is so badly served as the Public, because hitherto his choice of servants has been so restricted. And a necessary deduction from this is, that if the area of selection were extended, the Public would be better served. The cry has been very general of late for "the right man in the right place"-a very intelligible and appreciable demand, if we only knew how to supply it. It is often said, that instead of the right men we have got none but the wrong men; and that we always shall have the wrong men whilst favour is more potential than merit, and Government nominees are pitchforked into the Public Service without a thought of the manner in which their public duties are likely to be discharged. Some other process than that of unchallenged nomination, whereby the Public Service may be efficiently recruited, is therefore clamorously sought; and as people are wont to rush from one extreme into the other, it is proposed to substitute for an entirely close an entirely open system. The Public Service is to be the public service in every sense. The best man, or rather the best boy, is to win. A competitive examination is to determine the question of admission; and the number of "marks" is to be more potent than the word of the chief Minister of the day. There is something so plausible in such a proposal, that it is admirably calculated to carry the public by storm. And yet we have the strongest possible conviction that it is altogether a mistake.

There is no denying the fact, that the idea of what is called a "6" governing class" is not a popular one. What is meant is a governing caste-people with a sort of hereditary title to the

loaves and fishes of the State-the great family of the Tite - Barnacles, ever clinging to the rock of the public service with a glutinous tenacity which nothing can dissolve. According to modern satirists, it is the wont of these Tite-Barnacles to serve the public by reading the Morning Post, and eating jam with a paper - knife. Now, doubtless the Morning Post is a fact easily to be substantiated; the paper - knife is not incredible; but the jam must be taken in its figurative sense, typifying doubtless the sweets of office; for, materially, we apprehend that the article is not in much demand. The idea is, that a number of young men are billeted upon the public service, for the sole purpose of affording them board and lodging at the expense of the Statethat they draw every quarter from the public treasury a certain amount of public money, and do nothing for the public except in this great matter of the eating of jam. To speak plainly, it is a popular notion that the Tite - Barnacles, old and young, lounge away a certain portion of every day, when not more pleasantly engaged, in the public office to which their family interest may have consigned them, and that they are as guiltless of any capacity for public affairs, or any desire to be acquainted with them, as the horses in their fathers' stables. But this, after all, is only a popular delusion. In the first place, the number of hereditary place-holders is not great, and only a portion of them belong to the aristocratic classes. In the next place, cæteris paribus, an hereditary placeholder is likely to be a better public servant than his colleagues-a point, and a very important one, on which we shall presently descant more at length. And thirdly, the number of incapable public servants bears a very small proportion to the really hard-working and efficient men of business, who spend the time between ten and four every day in the conscientious performance of their duties.

But apart altogether from the

question of competency, there is a natural feeling against anything like a vested interest in the Public Service. Why, it is asked, are a few families to monopolise all the best offices of the State - why is connection, interest, accident in any shape, to be more potential than character, worth, intelligence, knowledge, every intrinsic quality that makes the man as distinguished from the name? The answer is simply that it is so, and that it must be so; and that if it ceases to be so in the Public Service, the Public Service will be the exception and not the rule. What but accident regulates success in other callings? Doubtless there are thousands of men with the highest probity, the best habits of business, the largest spirit of enterprise, who, for want of the accident of a little hereditary capital, are kept down to the dead level of retail trade; whilst men, their inferiors in capacity and in industry, are realising large fortunes, as merchants or bankers, simply on account of the accident of a certain amount of hereditary capital. Now, as regards the Public Service, interest or connection, or whatsoever else it may be called, is the hereditary capital of the upper classes. It is very right that men having neither family nor fortune, yet being possessed of those innat qualities which are most useful to society, should have a fair chance of working their way to the front. But it is no greater hardship that they should be precluded by Circumstance from making their way to the front rank, as traders in goods, in money, or aught else, than as soldiers, or administrators, or public servants of any other kind. Yet what if any one should propose to hold up places in breweries or banking - houses, or any other great money-making establishment, to public competition? would he not simply be called a lunatic? It is said, and truly, that what a man earns for himself-the growth of his industry, his enterprise, or his intelligence-should be inviolably his own, to be handed down to his children. But is the position, and the interest therefrom accruing, which a man earns by meritorious public service, less his own than that which

he acquires by some successful adventure in trade? It appears to us that it is not less, but more his own. Success in commercial enterprises may result from some fortunate accident; but no man carves his way to the front rank in the Public Service with no other sword than that of Accident. If he makes for himself a good position, it is because he has energy, industry, and intelligence. He cannot in such a position make for himself a large moneyed capital, for even the best prizes of the public service are very moderate in extent. The capital which he makes, as before said, is influence; and why should he be told that this is to be taken from him-that what he has worked for through long years, and fairly earned by the sweat of his brow, is to be of no service to his children? Is not, in effect, such a judgment to deprive a man of the capital which he has been laboriously heaping up, just as much as though you were to throw open snug places in breweries and banking-houses to public competition? It may be said that the object is to obtain better servants for the State. But if better public servants are to be so obtained, might we not, by the same process of public competition, obtain better beer and more honest bankers for the benefit of the Public?

It may be said that as public servants are paid for by the Public, and administer the affairs of the Public, the Public have a right to a share in the administration, and that the best mode of giving them this share is by allowing them to compete for places in the public service. But what is there that the Public does not pay for? It is possible that if the affairs of the State were better managed, taxation would be reduced. But is it not also possible that if certain large estates, or certain gigantic breweries, were better managed, and landholders and brewers looked for smaller profits, bread and beer would be cheaper than they are? But this is not generally held to be a convincing_argument in favour of putting up Broadacres and Meux and Co. to public competition. The plain fact is that there are and ever have been monopolies in every conceivable de