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164
Glaucus; Or, The Wonders of the Shore
·
Charles Kingsley
124
Mystery
of
mysteries!
Let
us
jest
no
more,—
Heaven
forgive
us
if
we
have
jested
too
much
on
so
simple
a
matter
as
that
poor
spider-crab,
taken
out
of
the
lobster-pots,
and
left
to
die
at
the
bottom
of
the
boat,
because
his
more
aristocratic
cousins
of
the
blue
and
purple
armour
will
not
enter
the
trap
while
he
is
within.
I
am
not
aware
whether
the
surmise,
that
these
tiny
zoophytes
help
to
purify
the
water
by
exhaling
oxygen
gas,
has
yet
been
verified.
The
infusorial
animalcules
do
so,
reversing
the
functions
of
animal
life,
and
instead
of
evolving
carbonic
acid
gas,
as
other
animals
do,
evolve
pure
oxygen.
So,
at
least,
says
Liebig,
who
states
that
he
found
a
small
piece
of
matchwood,
just
extinguished,
burst
out
again
into
a
flame
on
being
immersed
in
the
bubbles
given
out
by
these
living
atomies.
I
myself
should
be
inclined
to
doubt
that
this
is
the
case
with
zoophytes,
having
found
water
in
which
they
were
growing
(unless,
of
course,
sea-weeds
were
present)
to
be
peculiarly
ready
to
become
foul;
but
it
is
difficult
to
say
whether
this
is
owing
to
their
deoxygenating
the
water
while
alive,
like
other
animals,
or
to
the
fact
that
it
is
very
rare
to
get
a
specimen
of
zoophyte
in
which
a
large
number
of
the
polypes
have
not
been
killed
in
the
transit
home,
or
at
least
so
far
knocked
about,
that
(in
the
Anthozoa,
which
are
far
the
most
abundant)
the
polype—
or
rather
living
mouth,
for
it
is
little
more—
is
thrown
off
to
decay,
pending
the
growth
of
a
fresh
one
in
the
same
cell.
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