Dr. C. F. J. Lachmann on the Organization of Infusoria. 123 



which he attempted of the movement of the internal parts of the 

 body*, which had then been seen only in a few species of Infu- 

 soria by Fockef, namely, referring them to a displacement of 

 the parenchyma of the body, and perceived that the actual 

 circulations compel the admission of a large cavity, in which the 

 circulating masses are contained. Ehrenberg, however, sup- 

 posed X that this condition of the animals was not to be considered 

 as the normal one, as Meyen had done§, and regarded it only as a 

 transitory pathological state produced by the enlargement of one 

 stomach at the expense of the others. In this case, therefore, 

 the contents of all the previous stomachs would be poured into 

 one ; every portion previously contained in a stomach might con- 

 sequently have retained the globular form, v/hich it had acquired 

 in consequence of the shape of the stomach. This supposition 

 appeared to explain the phsenomena so long as the rotation could 

 be considered only as a transitory state occurring in parti- 

 cular species || ; but if it were correct, the new masses taken in 

 during the rotation could no longer assume the globular form, 

 but must simply mix with the contents of the large stomach. 

 But we see that the formation of the globular morsels takes place 

 even when the rotation of the masses contained in the large 

 cavity of the body is very lively, and we also find that in most 

 Infusoria^ the state of rotation is the ordinary one, and that the 

 quiescent state of the internal masses is only transitory, so that 

 we are compelled to regard the state in which the body includes 

 a large digestive cavity, as the normal condition. 



In opposition to Ehrenberg^s views, Dujardin, as is well known, 

 developed his theory of sarcode and vacuoles**, according to 

 which the whole body of the Infusoria only consists of formless, 

 moveable animal substance, into which the food is pressed or 

 whirled by cilia, and in which cavities (vacuoles) may be formed 

 in any place, filled with a transparent fluid, which, like the 

 entire mass of which the animal is composed, is denominated 

 sarcode by Dujardin. This opinion now finds but little accept- 



* Die Infusionsthierchen, p. 262. % Miiller's Archiv, 1839, p. 81. 



t Isis, 1836, p. 786. § Ibid. p. 74. 



II Ehrenberg was the more fixed in this conviction, as he really believed 

 he had directly seen the branched intestine which he ascribed to all his 

 Enterodelous Polygastrica in Trachelius Ovum ; we shall have occasion to 

 speak of it further on. 



IF In all which possess an open ciliated oesophagus. (See further on.) 



** Histoire naturelle des Infusoires. This theory may be regarded as a 

 carrying out of the idea which found the greatest number of adherents in 

 the preceding and the commencement of the present century up to the 

 time of Ehrenberg : according to this, the Infusoria were only vivified 



