^6 Dr Wagner on the Structure of the Infusoria. 



was very distinct by two dark spots. Nitsch took these spots 

 for ey^a, which they certainly are not, but the origin (if not the 

 exit, against which, however, we have all analogy) of the 

 otaria, which are here destitute of the granular tissue. These 

 spots sometimes assumed a spiral, sometimes a forked or double 

 forked, form. With regard to the organs of motion, the mouth 

 is large, more or less extensile, and surrounded with a notched 

 or plain margin or ring ; it is bell-shaped, and is attached to the 

 body by a narrow pedicel. The tail has lateral indentations 

 and longitudinal striae or fibres towards its middle. I am in- 

 clined to suppose a union of transverse and longitudinal fibres, 

 true muscular tissue, for I am convinced that these animals pos- 

 sess muscles quite analogous to those of the higher animals, and 

 Ehrenberg has demonstrated it with regard to the hydatina. 

 How the tail is fixed to the body, I have not been able pre- 

 cisely to determine, but it is probable that a sort of prolonga- 

 tion is fixed into a notch in the hinder part of the trunk. 



These few observations on the infusoria cannot be compared 

 with those of Nitsch, Baer, and Ehrenberg ; they are only a 

 fragment towards the completion of the history of this vast 

 kingdom of nature. In conclusion, I must add a word to ex- 

 plain why I have taken no notice of two recent observers of in- 

 fusoria — Bory St Vincent and Muncke ; but so much do I value 

 the labours of O. F. Muller and Schrank, that I owe it to truth 

 to assert that I consider the communications of the former as 

 quite lost for science. When Muncke says that he has devoted 

 from three to four hours every day for three weeks to the ob- 

 servations which were laid before the meeting of Naturalists at 

 Hamburg, we can oiily lament that a man of acknowledged re- 

 putation as a natural philosopher has spent so much time use- 

 lessly upon matters with which he was quite unacquainted. It 

 is worse with Bory ; for it is quite incomprehensible how any 

 man can be considered as a naturalist of eminence, who dis- 

 plays in his writings an inaccuracy, superficiality, and ignorance, 

 that must be frightful to every one who examines closely his 

 works, and as revolting as the frivolity of which his Histoire 

 Naturelle de THomme is so striking an example. 



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