ZOOLOGY. 401 



the higher croup, the more exalted mental force; for the mind, while not 

 itself material, is yet so dependent on the material, that its action draws 

 deeply upon the energies of the body. To make an animal germ is, then, to 

 make a particle of albuminoid substance that will grow arid spontaneously 

 develop a powerful piece of enginery, and continue a system of such genera- 

 tions through ages of reproduction. The creation of any such animal germ 

 out of dead carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen, or any of their dead 

 compounds, is therefore opposed to all known action or law of chemical 

 forces; and as much so, the creation of a vegetable germ from inorganic 

 elements. Moreover, it is seen that the two kingdoms, the vegetable and 

 animal, have their specific limits and comprehensive reciprocal relations, 

 and are obviously embraced as parts of one idea in a single primal plan : 

 not a plan involving the generation of one out of the other, or of cither out 

 of inorganic nature, but of the three, through some Creating Power higher 

 than all. 



ON APPARENT EQUIVOCAL GENERATION. 



Mr. H. J. Clark, of Cambridge, in a communication to the American 

 Academy, Boston, May 10, 18-39, states that he has been fortunate in discov- 

 ering the origin of several forms of these pseudo-animate bodies called 

 Infusoria. Whilst watching the decomposition of the inner wall of the 

 proboscis of a young Amelia flavidula, our common jelly-fish, I observed 

 that the whole component mass of cells was in violent agitation, each cell 

 dancing zigzag about within the plane of the wall. If any one will shake 

 about a single layer of shot in a flat pan, he can obtain an approximate idea 

 of the appearance of this moving mass. In a perfectly healthy condition, 

 these cells lie closely side by side, and do i^lot move individually from place 

 to place, but yet are active on one side, Avhich constitutes the surface of the 

 stomach, where they are covered by vibratile cilia. As the young Aurelia 

 grows, this wall becomes separated from the outer one, but not completely, 

 for the cells of the two adhere to each by elongated processes varying in 

 number from one to six or seven. Each cell of the inner wall contains nu- 

 merous red or brown granules, a few transparent globules, and a single large, 

 clear mesoblast. When decomposition ensued, these cells became still far- 

 ther separated from each other, and danced about in the manner which I 

 have just described. The vibratile cilia were not observed to share in this 

 movement; in fact, I could not detect their presence, because, no doubt, they 

 had become decomposed and fallen away; but the elongated processes, 

 which heretofore had remained immovable and stiff, lashed ahput with very 

 marked effect upon the cells to which they belonged, and caused them to 

 change place constantly. At last the inner wall fell to pieces, and every cell 

 moved independentl}", and in any direction. If at this time they were placed 

 before the eyes of Ehrenberg, or any one of his adherents, he would at 

 once pronounce every cell with a single process a Monas ; the red or brown 

 granules would be recognized as the stomachs filled with food, the trans- 

 parent globules as the empty stomachs, and the large mesoblast as the gen- 

 ital organ or propagative apparatus. Those with two processes would be to 

 him a Chilomonas, or some other genus closely related to it; those with three 

 or four on one side Avould be the Oxyrrhis of Dujarclin ; and those with six 

 or seven processes the Ilexamita of the same author. To complete the ap- 

 parently truthful determinations of these microscopists, I would only have 

 to place before them some of these cells which I have found in a state of 



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