VII. LIVING- MATTEE. 



" Tlie addition of matter from year to year arrives at last at the 

 most complex fonus ; and yet so poor is Nature with all her craft 

 that from the beginning to the end of the universe, she has only one 

 stuff but one stuff with its two ends to serve up all her dream-like 

 variety." EMERSON. 



THERE are simpler forms of life than even the 

 Amoeba, but few more curious and interesting. If 

 some pond- water is put into a bottle and allowed to 

 settle, the object we are in search of will probably 

 be found in the sediment at the bottom. A drop 

 of this should be gradually allowed to fall from 

 a dipping-tube on a glass slide, and then, being 

 covered with a thin glass cover, placed on the 

 stage of the microscope for examination . If we are 

 fortunate, we shall see a very fine bit of almost 

 clear, jelly-like matter, of irregular outline ; and on 

 observing it attentively for some time, we shall 

 remark a withdrawal of some portion of its jagged 



