INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxxxix 



Globigerina mud is full of the pseudopodia of that foramin- 

 ifer, worked up more or less into a general slime. When 

 alcohol is added to this, the pseudopodial matter is precipi- 

 tated, and this is the precipitate figured by Haeckel as Bathyb- 

 ius. If large living specimens of the foraminifera are sep- 

 arated by the sieve from the mud, and then placed in alco- 

 hol, a similar precipitate is obtained. It would seem from 

 this as if Bathybius might simply be a dead mass of proto- 

 plasm resulting from the decay of these foraminiferous or- 

 ganisms; but Bessels has, on the other hand, seen well-marked 

 amoeboid movements in Protobathybius, indicating that Ba- 

 thybius is a living organism. 



Dr. Greet", in further studies on the fresh-water Pelomyxa 

 (previously called Pelobius), finds that it reproduces by throw- 

 ing out amoeba-like masses which grow into zoospores. In 

 all respects it is a higher organism than the Bathybius, or 

 even the Amoeba, which simply reproduces by self-division 

 of the entire body-mass. 



A fierce controversy has been raging about the animal 

 nature of Eozoon, the supposed giant foraminiferous creature 

 of the Azoic or Laurentian period. Messrs. King and Ron- 

 ney on the one side, and Dr. Carpenter, have renewed the 

 controversy of past years ; while the number of skeptics as 

 to its organic nature seems increasing on both sides of the 

 Atlantic. 



Much attention has been paid to the fresh-water Amoeba, 

 and other Rhizopods of this country, by Professor Leidy. He 

 has brought to notice several most interesting forms allied 

 to Amoeba and JJifflugia. Among them is a singular form, 

 the Amoeba sabulosa, which swallows an amount of quartzose 

 sand equal to more than half its bulk. 



Another curious form of terrestrial Rhizopods was found 

 in rainy weather in the earth about the roots of mosses grow- 

 ing in the crevices of the bricks of the pavements in Phila- 

 delphia. The animal, with its outstretched threads of proto- 

 plasm (pseudopodia), has been compared by Professor Leidy 

 to a spider stationed at the centre of its well-spread net. 

 "'Imagine," he says, " every thread of this net to be a living 

 extension of the animal, elongating, branching, and becoming 

 confluent so as to form a most intricate net; and imagine 

 every thread to exhibit actively moving currents of a viscid 



