Rotifer

“ While the desmid is within the body the rotifer has control over it sufficient to take it into the mouth if it is of the right size, but if it is too large he soon becomes disgusted and ejects it with a sudden movement which sends it whirling rapidly away. ”

“ Sometimes the particles swallowed by the Common Rotifer are large enough for their course to be traced, but there is frequently a great commotion and grinding of the gizzard, without any appreciable cause, although doubtless something is taken in, and when the creature is tired, or has had enough, we see both head and tail retracted, and the body assumes a globular form. ”

“ Harry glanced up as if startled. He was silent a moment; then he slid reluctantly from his chair and said, "All right."
Mr. Chatham sat down and bent over the microscope. Puzzled and a little hurt, he twirled the focusing vernier and peered into the eyepiece, looking down once more into the green water world of the rotifers.
There was a swarm of them under the lens, and they swam lazily to and fro, their cilia beating like miniature propellers. Their dark eyes stared, wet and glistening; they drifted in the motionless water, and clung with sucker-like pseudo-feet to the tangled plant stems. ”

“ The other end of the body terminates in a jointed foot. Both the wheel-organs and foot can be drawn within the case in which the body of the Rotifer is inclosed. This case resembles that of the Crabs. The Rotatoria possess the water-vascular system of the Worms, as described in Aspidogaster. The group is intermediate in its structure between the Soft Worms, the Annelida, and the Crabs,—the Rotatoria having been considered to belong to each of these groups by different naturalists. They represent very naturally that point of the tree where the Soft Worms end and the Crabs begin. ”

“ But if the organization of the Rotifer, or Tardigrade, is such that it can withstand desiccation—if it only needs the fresh applications of moisture to restore its activity—all, or almost all, the animals experimented on ought to revive; and the fact that only some revive leads us to suspect that these have not been desiccated—a suspicion which is warranted by direct experiments. I believe, then, that the discrepancy amounts to this: investigators who have desiccated the moss containing animals, find some of the animals revive on the application of moisture ”

“ The larger part are whirled away from the vicinity of the animal in the manner familiar to all who have observed the thecated Rotifers or the freshwater Polyzoa—but those which are utilised for building purposes are ejected between the rotifer and its tube or theca, and received under the lower margin of the ciliated trochus, where they remain for a few seconds as if the animal were making sure of its proper hold, and then by & sudden retraction of its body it dabs the pellet into a proper position on the margin of the theca, and instantly resumes its usual condition. ”

“ Returning home, a few leaves were placed in the live-box, and on examination with the power of sixty diameters they disclosed a specimen of, perhaps, the most beautiful of all the rotifers, the Stephanoceros Eichornii. In this elegant creature an oval body, somewhat expanded at the top, is supported upon a tapering stalk, and stands in a gelatinous bottle, composed of irregular rings superimposed one upon the other, as if thrown off by successive efforts, the upper ones being inverted and attached to the body of the animal. ”

“ The animals are Rotifers, Synchæta by name, one of the comparatively few kinds which live in the sea. They dart about in every direction, pursuing some invisible prey: the scene is like a fair. But what of the numbers of maimed and dead which one would expect to find after their stormy experience of a few minutes ago? They do not exist. The water is pulsating with vigorous life, and the rotifers appear quite unconscious that anything unusual is toward.
These delicate animals must escape destruction by reason of their small size. When they have a drop of water to swim in they have a world. ”

“ We pass on to note a few species of the mail-clad or loricated Rotifers, chief among which the great Euchlanis (Fig. 12) , a noble-looking fellow, calls for our attention, his great size rendering him easily visible to the naked eye. It is difficult to avoid using the masculine gender, but, of course, all those figured and described are of the gentler sex. Salpina, too (Fig. 14) , with its box-like lorica, armed with spines at each of the upper angles, and having three below, is quite easily recognised, and very common. ”

“ The little creatures swam to and fro as before, growing hazy and dwindling or swelling as they swam out of the narrow focus of the lens; he gazed at those who paused in sharp definition, and saw that, although he had at first seen no visible means of propulsion, each creature bore about its head a halo of thread-like, flickering cilia that lashed the water and drew it forward, for all the world like an airplane propeller or a rapidly turning wheel.
"I know what they are!" exclaimed Henry Chatham, turning to his son with an almost boyish excitement. "They're rotifers! ”

“ Many of the Rotifers carry their eggs when ripe extruded from the body in two bunches or clusters, as is the habit also of the little microscopic shrimps known as Cyclops. There is a whole group of Rotifers which fix themselves by the tail, when full grown, to some solid support. Each then forms a protective tube or case around itself, from the mouth of which it puts forth its wheel-apparatus and into which it can retire for protection. Some of the largest and most beautiful of the wheel animalcules belong to this group of fixed or sedentary Rotifers. ”

“ It's like Sally says, he's been wearing himself out, thinking too much about—the rotifers. But the doctor will be here pretty soon, the doctor will know what to do."
"They don't like knowing that they aren't the only ones on Earth that can think. I expect people would be the same way."
"But they're such little things, Harry. They can't hurt us at all." ”

“ Seldom had my experiments on rotifers and tardigrades been surrounded with equal chances of success, yet they had always succeeded. But the particular nature of the subject and the special scruples imposed upon my conscience, obliged me to employ a certain number of new conditions, which I had long since, in other connections, foreseen the expediency of. I had taken the pains to arrange an opening at each end of my oval receiver, and fit into it a heavy glass, which enabled me to follow with my eye the effects of the vacuum on the Colonel. ”

“ Fission and budding are alike unknown. The fertilised eggs are of the kind termed "winter" or "resting" eggs, and resist conditions adverse to life.
The Rotifera are of cosmopolitan distribution; most of the species inhabit fresh water, whilst some are brackish, and a few are marine; 84 genera and about 700 species have been described. ”

“ Then it thrusts out its tail-foot, swells its body to an oval globe, protrudes its feeler, and slightly [80] exposes a row of cilia. After this two distinct wheels are everted, and as their cilia whirl and spin, the animal is swiftly rowed along, until it thinks proper to moor itself fast by the tail-foot, and employ all its ciliary power in causing currents to converge towards its throat. When it pleases it can elongate the body, till it becomes vermiform, and it walks like the common rotifer, by curving its back, and bringing its nose and its tail in contact with the ground. ”

“ We may say, therefore, that the Rotifera are organized upon the plan of an Annelid larva.... I do not hesitate to draw the conclusion ... that the Rotifera are the permanent forms of Echinoderm larvae, and hold the same relation to the Echinoderms that the Hydriform Polypi hold to the Medusae, or that Appendicularia holds to the Ascidians. ”

“ He would lower the paper every now and then to watch Harry, in his corner of the living-room, bowed obliviously over the microscope and the secret life of the rotifers.
Once the boy glanced up from his periodic drawing and asked, with the air of one who proposes a pondered question: "Dad, if you look through a microscope the wrong way is it a telescope?"
Mr. Chatham lowered his paper and bit his underlip. "I don't think so—no, I don't know. When you look through a microscope, it makes things seem closer—one way, that is ”

“ The justification of supposing that probably all moving organisms are within the grip of the spiral urge is found in the fact that the amebas, ciliates, flagellates, swarm spores, zoöspores, Oscillatoria, diatoms, rotifers, larvae of worms, molluscs and echinoderms, oligochaets, copepods, as well as man, all move in regular smooth spirals of one kind or another when free from strong stimulation, and that no organism that is free to move as these are, moves in a straight or irregular path. ”

“ One day King Rother was seated on his throne surrounded by his counsellors, watching now the people, now the sports, and now the restless waves that were beating against the shore. There was a troubled look upon his face. Turning to his old and faithful banner-bearer, Duke Berchther of Meran, who sat beside him, “Look,” he said, “do you see how the waves raise their foam-crowned heads high in the air, dash forward, and then vanish without leaving a trace behind? The kings of the earth resemble them in this, so indeed do all men.” ”

“ Rotherfield get on together?” asked Lady Eridge as if carelessly, though Rhoda knew well the thought that was in her mind.
“Quite well. Sir Robert is very fond of him, and I have never seen him laugh or talk so much as he did last night at dinner when Mr. Rotherfield was there.”
“Yes. He is a most amusing companion, I must admit. But I think he is too flippant and too extravagant to be a safe friend for a young married woman. You will perhaps be surprised, Miss Pembury, that I speak to you so openly. ”

“ Swish—clash! they sounded behind her; then a sickening jar, as Rothgar’s terrible axe fell. A yell of agony rent the air. Swish—clash! the blows came faster; her ear could no longer separate them. The thud of the falling axes became one continuous pound. Faster and faster, heavier and heavier,—they blended into a discordant roar that closed around her like a wall. Here and there and to and fro, Rothgar’s great charger followed the King; and here and there and to and fro, on her foam-flecked horse, Randalin followed the son of Lodbrok, staring, dazed, stunned. ”

“ Jack Rotherfield burst into the group and threw himself on the ground beside the dead woman. Unprincipled as he was, guilty as he was, not one of the three persons present could fail to be moved by the anguish in his face. Solemn as the moment was, and deeply as they were all impressed by the swiftness of the unexpected and as yet imperfectly understood tragedy, not one of those three, Sir Robert, Rhoda, or Mrs. Hawkes, showed half the despair which convulsed the features of the young man. ”

“ Rotgier, who had fought in many wars and battles, either in troop or singly, knew by experience that there are some people, like birds of prey, who are born to fight, being specially gifted by Nature, who bestows all things, with what others only attain after years of training, and he at the same time observed that he was now dealing with one of those. ”

“ It was said, too, that an answering hiss came from the vitals of the shipmaster, as if a snake were actually lurking there and had been aroused by the call of its brother reptile. If there were in fact any such sound, it might have been caused by a malicious exercise of ventriloquism on the part of Roderick.
Thus making his own actual serpent—if a serpent there actually was in his bosom—the type of each man’s fatal error, or hoarded sin, or unquiet conscience, and striking his sting so unremorsefully into the sorest spot, we may well imagine that Roderick became the pest of the city. ”

“ As to Fultrade, the monk at first seemed nailed to the floor with stupefaction at the sight of the father of Anne the Sweet, but speedily recovering his self-control, said to Rothbert:
"Time presses. I shall depart instantly on the mission that you have charged me with."
"Make it clear to the seigneurs and the abbots that we can not choose but win, provided we act concertedly."
The monk vanished, and redoubling his affability toward Eidiol, Rothbert resumed: "Be welcome, my trusty skipper. You could not possibly have arrived at a more opportune moment. Your advice will be useful to us." ”

“ But this tiny insect-like creature spent last winter in Central America, or it may be in Cuba, and now here he sat, perfectly at home again in this Green Mountain nook; and next autumn he will be off again betimes, as the merest matter of course, for another thousand-mile flight. Verily, a marvelous spirit and energy may be contained within a few ounces of flesh! But if Trochilus be indeed Prospero's servant in disguise, as one of our poets makes out, why, then, to be sure, his flittings back and forth are little to wonder at. How slow, overgrown, and clumsy human beings must look in his eyes! ”

“ His confinement, however, although it contributed not a little to the peace of the town, operated unfavorably upon Roderick himself. In solitude his melancholy grew more black and sullen. He spent whole days--indeed, it was his sole occupation--in communing with the serpent. A conversation was sustained, in which, as it seemed, the hidden monster bore a part, though unintelligibly to the listeners, and inaudible except in a hiss. Singular as it may appear, the sufferer had now contracted a sort of affection for his tormentor, mingled, however, with the intensest loathing and horror. ”