O f the Eels in blighted W heat.*
Thefe animalcula were difcovered by Mr. Needham, and
defcribed by him in a work entitled New Microfcopical Dif-
coveries. They are not lodged in thole blighted grains which
are covered externally with a foot-like dull, (whofe infide is often
alfo little more than a black powder) but abundance p f ears may
be obferved in fome fields o f com, which have grains that appear
blackilh, as if fcorched; thefe, when opened, are found to contain
a foft white fubltance, that, when attentively Examined, looks
like a congeries of threads, or fibres, lying as clofe as polfible to
each other in a parallel dire&ion, and much refembling the unripe
down of fome thiftles. This fibrous'matter does not difcover
any figns of life or motion, unlefs water be applied to it; the
fibres then feparate, and prove themfelves to be living creatures.
Thefe eels are in general of a large lize, and may be feen with
a common magnifying glafs, being about one-thirtieth of an inch
in length, and one hundred and fortieth broad. Fig. 5 reprefents
one o f them magnified about one hundred and twenty times;
they are in general of a bright chefnut colour, the extremity a b
is whiter and more tranfparent than the reft of the body. . The
end a is rather round, the end b is pointed. A diftinguilhing-'
mark o f thefe little creatures is a row o f tranfparent globules,
which are placed at intervals through the whole length o f the
body, beginning at b, where the tranfparency of the fore-part
ceafes, and going on to the extremity c. They are in diameter
rather lels than one-third o f the body. Another peculiar mark
is
* Bled avorti. '
is a fmall lunular tranfparent fpace c near the middle of the
body. This part is tranfparent, and is free from the coloured
matter of the inteftines; there is a neck in the inteftines near
this fpace, which confines them to one part of the body.
Great care Ihould be taken by the obferver not to burft the
fkin of the eels in difengaging them from the grain, for they
never break or burft of themfelves ; but if broke, vifible inteftines,
filled with a black matter, rulh out of the body, from which
little black globules are difengaged,- which fwim flowly about the
water, but without any principle of internal motion; when thé
obfervation is madé, immediately after the grains proceed from
the e el; but if the eels that are broke are left long in the water,
the fame phenomena will take place, as in other animal and
vegetable infufions. It is owing to not properly attending to
thefe circumftances, that we may attribute many of the fanciful
pofitions of M. Needham, which were deduced from lll-conducied
experiments, and which, when properly-examined, are found to
be in a great meafure falfe.
M. Roffredi fowed fome o f the grains df this wheat, which
fprang up ; but the ear was either wholly or in a great part
fpoiled, being filled with thefe eels. He alfo found them in other
parts of the plant; to difengage them from thè plant, it muft be
foaked in water,, and then compreffed a little. At firft fight thefe
eels feem to refemble the foregoing, but a more accurate infpec-
tion {hews that they have not the fame curious difpofition of the
internal globules, nor the fame tranfparent place in the middle
of the body. The inteftinal bag leaves indeed in thefe an empty
fpace, but it is of an. indetermined form. The animalcula from
the