Purpose and Intelligence exhibited by the Protozoa. 549 



of Beophax scorpiurus Montfort, all over the world ; at Selsey 

 Bill Vemeuilina polystropha Keuss, selects garnet and topaz, 

 whilst there and everywhere else Haplophragmium agglutinans 

 d'Orbigny shows a marked affinity for magnetite. With regard to 

 the latter we have elsewhere noted that among the dredgings from 

 the Kerimba Archipelago, which form the subject of our Monograph 

 in the Transactions of the Zoological Society,* though the species 

 was extremely rare and magnetite was only present in the sands 

 in very small proportions at widely distant areas, the few specimens 

 found had incorporated large and eccentric grains of this mineral 

 in their tests.f Not to multiply instances we have noted this 

 same selective tendency in specimens of Beophax dijjiugiformis 

 Brady, from New Zealand. It is difficult to know what biological 

 significance, if any, to attach to this apparently purely ornamental 

 use of grains of building material contrasting highly with the 

 remainder, regard being had to the lowly organization of the 

 builder. I have been constrained to disclaim the attribution of 

 an " aesthetic sense " to these organisms, but Professor J. Arthur 

 Thomson, in a recent review of my paper on the subject in the 

 Phil. Trans. ,\ speaking of the co-ordination of selected materials, 

 observes, " When we remember that this is no matter of ' organic 

 cristallization,' but the result of placing extraneous materials, 

 selectively gathered, in a definite and singularly effective arrange- 

 ment, we feel that we are approaching the dawn of art."§ 



The " intelligence," however, which, I am bold enough to 

 claim, is displayed by the arenaceous Foraminifera in their house- 

 building takes two forms : first, the exclusive selection of certain 

 materials, and second, the manner in which they are used. The 

 exclusive selection of echinoderm plates by Technitella thompsoni 

 H-A. & E., for the construction of its test, is a most remarkable 

 illustration of this selective power, for in neither of the dredgings 

 in which it has been found do echinoderm plates such as are used 

 in its construction abound, indeed they form an infinitesimal 

 percentage of the material as dredged, and their presence would 

 remain unobserved unless especially searched for. j| Yet this 

 microscopic organism selects and uses only these highly perforated 

 plates, the perforations serving it as apertures for the extrusion of 

 its pseudopodia, a specialized and definite aperture being non- 

 existent in this species, though very pronounced in the other 

 species of the genus. The genus Technitella as the name " Little 



* Bibliography 6. 



t Bibliography 8, p. 2G7 ; and G, part ii. p. 613. 

 I Bibliography 8. 



§ J. Arthur Thomson, "Before the Dawn of Art," New Statesman, October 23, 

 1915. 



|| Bibliography 2 ; and 8, p. 2G7. 



