THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 219 



gyrations of the organism. Whilst in the amoeboid 

 state the changes in shape were moderately rapid , though 

 two or three organisms were watched, one portion of 

 which remained rounded and apparently attached to the 

 glass, whilst the opposite extremity threw out and re- 

 tracted comparatively long processes with lightning- 

 like rapidity — some of them being filiform, like the 

 ordinary persistent fiagellum^. 



' On the seventh day thousands of the motionless 

 spheroidal Amoeba were seen, which had much increased 

 in size. They were now as much as xrVo" i^^ di^.- 

 meter, and displayed one or more vacuoles (Fig. 58, d). 

 Each one contained a distinct nuclear particle, though 

 there was an almost complete absence of granules — the 

 body substance being quite pellucid. Some organisms 

 of the same kind, though rather smaller, contained the 

 ordinary granules in their interior and also exhibited 

 slow amoeboid movements • whilst many Monads of the 

 same size and general appearance wei-e seen exhibiting 

 amoeboid changes of form, though they had not yet 

 lost their almost motionless flagellum. 



On the eighth day there were myriads of active 

 Amoebse around every portion of the pellicle which was 

 examined — they were in fact, at this period, almost 

 as numerous as the Monads. Great numbers also existed 

 in the spherical motionless condition. 



^ The rapidity with which such processes were emitted was similar to 

 what was noticed at p. 214. 



