ZOOLOGY. 425 



A fourth part of Mr. Archer's valuable resume of recent 

 contributions to our knowledge of fresh-water Rhizopods re- 

 fers to the one-chambered forms, such as the Pelomyxa and 

 Arachnula, which are among the lowest Rhizopods allied to 

 Amoeba, and are of very peculiar interest. 



Professor Leidy contributes to the America?! Naturalist a 

 notice of the Amoeba, and of the proper name that should be 

 applied to our species, wmich is the same as the European, 

 and is Amoeba proteus. 



Professor Haeckel claims that the observations as to 

 the animal nature of Bathybius first made by Huxley and 

 himself were correct, contrary to the opinion now held by 

 Sir Wyville Thomson, Huxley, and others, that Bathybius is 

 nothing but a gypsum precipitate. The original specimen 

 of Bathybius was studied dead in alcohol. "This speci- 

 men," he says, " of Bathybius ooze, which had been very well 

 preserved in strong alcohol, I examined as minutely as pos- 

 sible, employing the newest methods of research, and in par- 

 ticular the excellent method, not employed by Huxley in his 

 investigation, of staining with carmine and iodine ; my pur- 

 pose being, above all, to determine more accurately the quan- 

 tity and quality of the amorphous protoplasmic matter. This 

 albuminous substance, which was reddened by carmine, was 

 very evenly distributed through the ooze, and, in most of the 

 specimens examined, constituted at least one tenth to one 

 fifth of the whole volume. In many cases it was as much as 

 one half. The same protoplasmic masses, which, on treat- 

 ment with carmine, became of a more or less deep-red tint, 

 took from iodine and pure nitric acid a yellow color; and 

 with other chemical reagents they exhibited precisely the 

 same properties as the protoplasm of animal and vegetable 

 cells." Haeckel thinks that Huxley has prematurely recant- 

 ed his earlier views concerning the organic nature of this 

 Bathybius stuff. Dr. Bessels found a living substance in 

 Smith Sound, which he called Protobathybius. It is figured 

 and briefly described by Bessels in Packard's " Life-History 

 of Animals." We had suspected that it Avas simply a Ba- 

 thybius, without the coccoliths or foreign bodies found in the 

 latter, and Haeckel takes the same view. 



Dr. Leidy has recently discovered a new infusorian, be- 

 longing to a new genus and species, named Trichonympha 



