ON THE GROUP PROTOZOA. 43 



on our ignorance than our knowledge. Those who ignore the anima- 

 lity of the true Protozoa may choose between the rival systems of Pro- 

 fessors Agassiz and Owen. 



[To the courtesy of the author we are indebted for a copy of his 

 paper " On the Distinctions of a Plant and an Animal, and on a Fourth 

 Kingdom of Nature. By John Hogg, M. A., F. P. S., F. L. S., etc. 

 (From the 'Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal,' I860.)" In this 

 communication, Mr. Hogg gives a general support to the proposition of 

 Professor Owen, to establish a fourth kingdom of nature for those " pri- 

 mary organic beings" whose systematic position is doubtful, qualifying, 

 however, his assent by the statement, that he is not yet " quite con- 

 vinced of the immediate necessity of doing so, or that it will ever remain 

 — notwithstanding the progress which we hope will continue to be made 

 in physical science — impossible for man to determine whether a certain 

 minute organism be an animal or a plant ;" while, at the same time, he 

 ventures to dispute the propriety of the term Protozoa as a designation 

 for a group of beings whose animality is obviously inadmissible. He, 

 therefore, in its stead suggests "the title of the Primigenal Kingdom, 



REGNTJM 



PRIMIGENUM, 



(continens) 

 PROTOCTISTA, 



i. e., 



PROTOPHYTA et PROTOZOA. ' 



Mr. Hogg endeavours still further to illustrate his meaning by the 

 addition of a diagrammatic figure, brilliantly coloured. In this graphic 

 representation, the animal and vegetable kingdoms .are respectively de- 

 noted by " two lofty pyramids," one line, the other yellow, arising from 

 a common base of a subdued green tint, his allegorical chromatic embodi- 

 ment of the " Regnum Primigenum;" the whole reposing on a more or 

 less undulating substratum of pale broivn, which places before the eye, in 

 one bold panoramic projection, the widely extended domain of our great 

 inorganic parent, Earth, the mother of us all.] 



