14 THE HIGHEST RIIIZOPODA. 



inorganic crystal, revelling in glittering angles of such definite 

 proportions and relations that an infinite design shines forth at 

 every turn ; and yet the simple faculty of self-determinative 

 motion stamps upon the almost shapeless mass of the Amoeba 

 a character by which the mind, as it were instinctively, places it 

 at a far more elevated status than the attractive mineral. 



There is but one more figure which I shall introduce to your 

 notice, as I think that the animal which it is intended to illus- 

 trate represents within itself the highest tendencies of organi- 



i ^^^ zation that may be found in the group 



of Rhizopods. This animal, (fig. 4,) 

 which was called by Schultze, its dis- 

 coverer, Rotalia Veneta, is to be found 

 crawling over the slimy mud among 

 the lagoons of Venice. From point to 

 point along the turns of the spiral shell 

 (b, c, d) there are transverse partitions, 

 which divide its cavity into as many 

 chambers, but do not shut them off from one another entirely, 

 as there is left a passage-way from one to the other, through 

 which the soft parts of the animal connect with each successive 

 one, from the central globular chamber (c) to the broadest and 

 last formed one (d) at the edge of the shell. The pseudopodia 

 (a) are not restricted in their egress to the single aperture at the 

 termination of the shell, as in the last animal, but they project 

 from all parts of the body through fine pores in the shell, as you 

 see in the figure. It is not necessary, however, that you should 

 infer that the food, whether animal or vegetable, is of necessity 

 very minute in order to be introduced within the shell; for I 

 must tell you that the digestion may go on outside as well as 

 within, and that it is done in quite a simple manner. The 

 pseudopodia, as I have told you, are mere prolongations of the 

 body, and the circulation of nutrient particles extends to their 



Fig. 4. Rotalia Veneta. Schultze. 72 diam. a, the pseudopodia, projecting 

 in every direction through the pores of the shell ; 6, the transverse partitions ; 

 c, the original, primary chamber ; d, the last chamber. From Schultze. 



