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 PREFACE v ♦ 



IN preparing the manuscript for this book of the Series I have 

 tried to avoid, as far as possible, all strictly technical matters 

 which do not carry their own explanations. I have taken advan- 

 tage of this opportunity, however, to put into print for the first 

 time a point of view which may come as a shock to most proto- 

 zoologists and may cause many protests. I refer to the transfer 

 of all chlorophyll-bearing flagellates from the classification of 

 Protozoa to the botanical classification of Algae. This procedure 

 is due to no sudden whim on my part to give novelty and original- 

 ity to the book, but is the result of careful consideration and full 

 conviction and has been taught for several years in my class work. 

 The little book is a brief survey of a vast field of living things 

 which are unnoticed by and are practically unknown to the aver- 

 age person. It is not a catalogue of minute forms of animal and 

 plant life, nor is it a guide to the fascinating mysteries revealed 

 by the microscope; rather it is written as a basis for reflection 

 on some of the fundamental problems concerned with the mecha- 

 nisms and activities of living substance. It takes for granted 

 the exclamations and superficial delights of the first few hours 

 with a microscope and with its revelations of kaleidoscopic move- 

 ments, colors, and forms, and invites the reader to look beyond 

 these to the meaning of it all. I submit again what was written 

 in the introduction of Rosel von Rosenhof's Insekten Beliisti- 

 gungen ( 1744) : 



Lies dieses Buch, und lern dabey, 

 Wie gros Gott auch im Kleinem sey.* 



Columbia University, 

 October, 1932. 



* This beautiful thought, freely translated is: 

 Read this book, and learn therefrom 

 How God is also great in little things. 



— Editor 



