42 THE PSYCHIC LIFE 



foreign body which it has encompassed. It is in this 

 manner that the food is enveloped and introduced into 

 the protoplasm; there it is digested and assimilated, 

 disappearing slowly. 



There are cellules found in the inner intestinal 

 walls of lower animals which effect the prehension of 

 solid foods in the same manner as the Amoeba cellule: 

 they are called phagocytes. 



This mode of prehension is beyond contradiction 

 the most simple imaginable; for the prehensile organ 

 is not as yet differentiated. Every part of the proto- 

 plasm may be made to serve as a digestive cavity in 

 enveloping the foreign substance. 



From the special standpoint of prehension of food, 

 we may place the Actinophrys sol above the Amoeba. 

 This animalcule is a small microscopic Ileliozolarian 

 abounding in fresh-water ooze. It casts out long, 

 slender, filamentous pseudopodia from every part of 

 its body. When its prey or any alimentary substance 

 gets into the midst of this mass of filaments, the fila- 

 ment affected quickly draws back, carrying the nutri- 

 tive matter with it towards the body proper of the 

 Actinophrys. In other instances, the filaments, anas- 

 tomosing themselves, form a sort of envelope about the 

 prey. At the instant the substance comes within a 

 short distance of the cellule, a part of the protoplasm 

 composing the mass projects itself forwards, and en- 

 compasses the food, which is carried back and envel- 

 oped in the midst of the protoplasm by a process anal- 

 ogous to that seen in Amoeba. 



In the case of the Actinophrys any part of the body 

 could serve as a way of entry for food, that is to say, 

 could act the part of a mouth. To use the expression 

 of W. Saville Kent, it is a pantostomate being. In 



