76 Rhodora [APRIL 
condition,” if one might so say, creeping about on this worn old planet 
with all the freshness of Creation's youth. It is of course needless to 
mention here the interest attaching to protoplasm. This is the form 
of matter which everywhere fascinates the student of biology; the 
secret of life is with it. For the last twenty-five years, in all sorts of 
physiologic and biologic treatises, the tiny amoeba has been made to 
play the leading róle; but the plasmodium, that is, the vegetative, 
active phase of a slime mould, is worth a thousand amoebas ; it exhibits 
vital phenomena on such a macroscopic scale. Contractility, irri- 
tability, assimilation, automatism, and all the other wondrous properties, 
so called, of living matter are here to be seen in their most beautiful 
display. 
In our university laboratory a few weeks since, we had the plas- 
modium of a Tilmadoche (7: polycephala Schw.) To a piece of 
Agaricus sapidus the size of one's hand a little of the clear yellowish 
plasmodium was transferred, and the whole covered by a large bell- 
glass. The plasmodium increased rapidly in size, perceptibly so within 
an hour. In twenty-four hours, all over the walls of the bell-jar there 
were sheets and streams of protoplasm spreading and massing like an 
invading army in all directions, while the agaric melted before it. 
Fresh pieces of agaric were from time to time supplied, and were as 
rapidly consumed, until the plasmodium had increased to such dimen- 
sions that it completely lined the glass and hung down in streaming 
pillars and columns from the summit. The plasmodium was divided, 
and every one who chose made a culture for himself; the streams 
were induced to run and spread on slides, transferred to micro- 
scopes and so watched, as the currents oscillated to and fro; some 
parts were gathered on cover-glasses, stained and mounted to show 
the swarming nuclei. All the wonderful phenomena seemed sus- 
ceptible of indefinite continuance; but unhappily cold weather came 
upon us; our supplies of fresh agaric failed. We softened up dry 
material of similar sort, but our slime mould, delicate connoisseur 
that it was, refused to be fed on food of our selection further, and 
presently succumbed to the assaults of a horde of real moulds and 
fungi that found our new supplies of pabulum quite suited to their less 
discriminating taste. The eater in turn was eaten. In the case of 
several bell-jars, however, we allowed the plasmodium to continue un- 
disturbed its favorite food-supply and made no attempt at all to set 
forth a new menu. In these cases the net-work streamed about a 
