CHAPTER XI.
NOVEMBER.
Characteristics of the Polyzoa—Details of Structure according to Allman—Plumatella repens—Its Great Beauty under proper Illumination—Its Tentacles and their Cilia—The Mouth and its Guard or Epistome—Intestinal Tube—How it swallowed a Rotifer, and what happened—Curiosities of Digestion—Are the Tentacles capable of Stinging?—Resting Eggs, or "Statoblasts"—Tube of Plumatella—Its Muscular Fibres—Physiological Importance of their Structure[118]
CHAPTER XII.
DECEMBER.
Microscopic Hunting in Winter—Water-Bears, or Tardigrada—Their Comical Behaviour—Mode of viewing them—Singular Gizzard—Wenham's Compressorium—Achromatic Condenser—Mouth of the Water-Bear—Water-Bears' Exposure to Heat—Soluble Albumen—Physiological and Chemical Reasons why they are not killed by Heating or Drying—The Trachelius ovum—Mode of Swimming—Method of Viewing—By Dark-ground Illumination—Curious Digestive Tube with Branches—Multiplication by Division—Change of Form immediately following this Process—subsequent Appearances[128]
CHAPTER XIII.
Conclusion.—Remarks on Classification, &c.[140]
CHAPTER I.
PLAIN HINTS ON MICROSCOPES AND THEIR MANAGEMENT.