5o6 THE BEGINNINGS OF IIFE. 



We have found that the former organisms may either be 

 produced by a kind of ascending development taking 

 place in forms which were at first very small^ or that 

 they may come into being at once by the direct trans- 

 formation of vegetal matrices equal to themselves in 

 bulk. It would, therefore, be altogether harmonious 

 with previously established facts if we were to find that 

 similar laws applied to the origin of Rotifers — that is 

 to say, if we found that they might not only arise by 

 m?ans of an ascending development through Actinophrys 

 and Ciliated Infusoria, but that they might be directly 

 derived from masses of transforming vegetal matter of 

 the most various origin. 



So long ago as 1845 Dr. Gros observed the trans- 

 formation of vesicles of the third order of Volvox 

 globator into a Rotifer belonging to the Philodinian 

 type 1 • and he also called attention to the all-important 



^ See 'Bullet, de la Soc. Imp. de Naturalistes de Moscou,' 1845, 

 P- 3^3 (with figures). The masses which underwent transformation 

 seemed to correspond to the so-called ' winter-spores' of Volvox, as 

 described by Mr. Busk (-Trans, of the Microscop. Soc' 1853, p. 38). 

 And according to Pritchard (p. 446) another Rotifer {Notommata parasitus) 

 is occasionally found within the hollow spheres of Volvox globator. But 

 it is almost impossible that a Rotifer produced from a large ' egg' could 

 be found in such a situation, unless the ' egg had been produced by hetero- 

 genesis. Dr. Braxton Hicks has, moreover, actually seen {Appendix D, 

 p. Ixxxvii.) some of the elements of the Volvox converted into large 

 Amoebae. So that these, as well as the so-called ' winter-spores,' might 

 subsequently be converted into heterogenetic ' eggs.' Again, a Rotifer has 

 been found by Ra-per within the cells of the aerial leaves of Sphagnum 

 obtmifolium, whilst Morren has also found specimens of Rotifer vulgarh 



