9 o 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



If it desires to seize any thing, it protrudes an arm for the purpose; 

 and, when it has in this way got possession of the needed nutriment, 

 becoming all stomachy it wraps itself round its food, and absorbs or 

 digests it. 



Dr. Carpenter describes it as " changing itself into a greater variety 

 of forms than the fabled Proteus, laying hold of its food without mem- 

 bers, swallowing it without a mouth, digesting it without a stomach, 

 appropriating its nutritious material without absorbent vessels or a 

 circulating system, moving from place to place without muscles, feel- 

 ing (if it has any power to do so) without nerves, multiplying itself 

 without eggs, and not only this, but, in many instances, forming shelly 

 coverings of a symmetry and complexity not surpassed by those of any 

 testaceous animal." 



Fig. 4. 



T^ Co o . <-s_ o t> : 



Modes of Origin and Development of Ciliated Inffsoeia. (x600.) 



a, Transforming Buglena. with red 'eye-speck" still visible; &, A similar body, having many of its chlo- 

 rophyll corpuscles still green, fringed with almost motionless cilia ; c, A completely decolorized sphere 

 derived from a transformed Eugiena. provided with a few partly-motionless cilia; d and e, More ad- 

 vanced forms of a similar embryo developing into a Dileptus (?) ; /, Vorticella. soon after its emergence 

 from a cyst of Eugiena origin, which subsequently develops into a striated variety (g); h, A large Chlo- 

 rocoecus-vesicle, whose contents gradually undergo decolorization ( j). and at last becomes converted 

 into an annualized mass (k). which gradually shapes itself into the form of an Oxytricha (I). This 

 after a time ruptures its cyst and soon takes on the characteristics shown at m ; n, A form of Ploesco- 

 nia derived from an embryo produced within other, apparently similar, Chlorococcus-vesieles. 



The experiments of Dr. Bastian force upon him the conclusion that 

 the several organisms here considered, bacteria, torula, vibriones, 

 fungus-filaments, protomoeba, and monads, are products of the direct 

 development of new-born specks of living matter. His experiments 

 seem to have been conducted with extreme precautions. He hermet- 

 ically closed the narrow necks of his flasks during violent ebullition, 

 thus producing an almost perfect vacuum above the infusion. After 



