Small Things

In Üie animal kiugdom are fouud myriads of forms so minute Üiat their Imlk reckoned by lcss than the millionth part of a cubii' inch, yet eaehone is endowed wïtli organs of sense or assimilation sufficient to serve the purpose of their sphere of life. The vegetable kingdóm, also, aöbrds abundant specimens of' microscopio forms, ralculatea to excite our admiration by tlubeauty of Din lomaren'. The striated markings of Pleitrostffmajiisciola aggregatc 'il - 000 to the inch, while Ampliipleura pdlitcilla ofteu exhibí t t i exceeding 100,000 to tlio lineal inch. And yet the skeletoiis oí' these minute organisnis are composeJ mainly ui' silex, the silex again being madu tip of silieon and oxygen. Xotwithstaml' ing the almöst infinitesimal magnitudeof the organic world, human skill is ai compete in the matter of miuuteness. Pltinum vrire has been drawn so fine a? t'1 rival in minutenéss the smallest fibre ol the spider'8 web. Uold has been deposit.ednpontlio surface of other metáis, and drawn to such an extremo thinacss tlial n thousand-inillionth part of a graiii 6Xhibited tlie visible ehafacteristica of the metiri. The oscillations of the horizontal pendulum can be measured to the -vOOO.OOüih part of an inch, by the aid of a sinall mirror, a beam of light, and a graduated scale lorreading the vibrations. Nobert, witli ii mechanical skill, unsurpassed, has repeatedly ruled with a diamoinipoint upon glass the nineteenth band ol his test-plate, oon'sisting of lines less than tho l-112th of an inch apart, and it s claimed tliat lie lias succeeded in ruling plates covering 221,000 lines per inca, such as would aggregate in super; areas to over 50,000,000,000 to the sqnwe inch ! - Popular Science ilonthlv.