Infusoria

(-fu-so're-ah.) [ From L. infusus, poured upon. ] (Zool.) A cla of animals, belonging to the branch Protozoa. The name was formerly applied to an heterogeneous a emblage of objects, some vegetable, others animal, but it is now restricted to a tribe of minute animals, destitute of shells, moving by means of cilia, found by myriads both in fresh and salt water, in stagnant ponds and ditches, in mineral and hot springs, and in moist situations. Their multitudes are so great and their size is so small, that those contained in a single cup of putrid water may exceed in number the whole human population of the globe! They are [s. 484]