Figure 3 is the "Pompeii Vase," also of the Museo Borbonico. It was discovered in a sepulchre of Pompeii in 1839, and is of the same character in the colours and quality of the glass as the Portland Vase, but of a more recent date. It is probably the production of Greek artists working in Rome.
Figure 4 is the "Aldjo Vase," which was found in 1833 at Pompeii, in the house of the Fauna. The ground of the vase is of a deep sapphire blue, on which, in opaque white glass, the ornaments are cut. It was found broken. Part is in the possession of Mr. Auldjo; the other in the British Museum. The shape of this vase is elegant, the handle and lip of exquisite form, and the taste and execution of the ornamental work in the purest style.
MINUTENESS OF INSECT LIFE.
As the telescope enables the eye of man to penetrate into far-distant space, and reveals to him myriads of suns and systems which otherwise would have remained for ever hidden from his natural sight, so the microscope opens up a world of life everywhere around us, but altogether unsuspected, astounding us as much by the inappreciable minuteness of its discoveries, as the former by the stupendous magnitude and remoteness of the objects. If we go to any ditch or pool which the summer sun has covered with a mantle of stagnant greenness, and lift from it a minute drop of water, such as would adhere to the head of a pin, we shall find it, under a high magnifying power, swarming with living beings, moving about with great rapidity, and approaching or avoiding each other with evident perception and will.
"Vain would it be," observes Professor Jones, "to attempt by words to give anything like a definite notion of the minuteness of some of these multitudinous races. Let me ask the reader to divide an inch into 22,000 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. Neither is it easy to give the student of nature, who has not accurately investigated the subject for himself, adequate conceptions relative to the numbers in which the Infusoria sometimes crowd the waters they frequent; but let him take his microscope, and the means of making a rough estimate, at least, are easily at his disposal. He will soon perceive that the animalcule-inhabitants of a drop of putrid water, possessing, as many of them do, dimensions not larger than the 2,000th part of a line, swim so closely together, that the intervals separating them are not greater than their own bodies. The matter, therefore, becomes a question for arithmetic to solve, and we will pause to make the calculation.
"The Monas termo, for example—a creature that might be pardonably regarded as an embodiment of the mathematical point, almost literally without either length, or breadth, or thickness—has been calculated to measure about the 22,000th part of an inch in its transverse diameter; and in water taken from the surface of many putrid infusions, they are crowded as closely as we have stated above. We may therefore safely say, that, swimming at ordinary distances apart, 10,000 of them would be contained in a linear space one inch in length, and consequently a cubic inch of such water will thus contain more living and active organized beings than there are human inhabitants upon the whole surface! However astounding such a fact may seem when first enunciated, none is more easily demonstrated with the assistance of a good microscope."
The term Infusoria has been by some naturalists applied to these diminutive animals, because they are invariably found in the infusions of vegetable or animal substances. They can thus be obtained at all times, by simply steeping a little hay, or chaff, or leaves or stems of any plant, in a vessel of water, and placing the infusion in the sun for a week or ten days.
LEGENDS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT.
It was believed in Pier della Valle's time, that the descendants of Judas Iscariot still existed at Corfu, though the persons who suffered this imputation stoutly denied the truth of the genealogy.
When the ceremony of washing the feet is performed in the Greek Church at Smyrna, the bishop represents Christ, and the twelve apostles are acted by as many priests. He who personates Judas must be paid for it, and such is the feeling of the people, that whoever accepts this odious part, commonly retains the name of Judas for life (Hasselquist, p. 43).