INTRODUCTION 11 



nized as the father of protozoology. Grinding lenses himself, 

 Leeuwenhoek made more than 400 simple lenses, including one 

 which, it is said, had a magnification of 270 times (Harting). Among 

 the many things he discovered were various Protozoa. According 

 to Dobell (1932), Leeuwenhoek saw in 1674 for the first time free- 

 living fresh- water Protozoa. Between 1674 and 1716, he observed 

 many Protozoa which he reported to the Royal Society of Lon- 

 don and which, as Dobell interpreted, were Euglena ("green in 

 the middle, and before and behind white"), Vorticella, Stylonychia, 

 Carchesium, Volvox, Coleps, Kerona, Anthophysis, Elphidium, etc. 

 Huygens gave in 1678 "unmistakable descriptions of Chilodon(-ella), 

 Paramecium, Astasia and Vorticella, all found in infusions" (Dobell). 



Colpoda was seen by Buonanni (1691) and Harris (1696) rediscov- 

 ered Euglena. In 1718 there appeared the first treatise on micro- 

 scopic organisms, particularly of Protozoa, by Joblot who empha- 

 sized the non-existence of abiogenesis by using boiled hay-infusions 

 in which no Infusoria developed without exposure to the atmosphere. 

 This experiment confirmed that of Redi who, some 40 years be- 

 fore, had made his well-known experiments by excluding flies from 

 meat. Joblot illustrated, according to Woodruff (1937), Paramecium, 

 the slipper animalcule, with the first identifiable figure. Trembley 

 (1744) studied division in some ciliates, including probably Para- 

 mecium, which generic name was coined by Hill in 1752. Noctiluca 

 was first described by Baker (1753). 



Rosel von Rosenhof (1755) observed an organism, which he called 

 "der kleine Proteus," and also Vorticella, Stentor, and Volvox. The 

 "Proteus" which Linnaeus named Volvox chaos (1758) and later re- 

 named Chaos protheus (1767), cannot be identified with any of the 

 known amoeboid organisms (Kudo, 1946). Wrisberg (1764) coined 

 the term "Infusoria" (Dujardin; Woodruff). By using the juice of 

 geranium, Ellis (1769) caused the extrusion of the "fins" (trichocysts) 

 in Paramecium. Eichhorn (1783) observed the heliozoan, Actino- 

 sphaerium, which now bears his name. O. F. Miiller described 

 Ceratium a little later and published two works on the Infusoria 

 (1773, 1786) although he included unavoidably some Metazoa and 

 Protophyta in his monographs, some of his descriptions and figures 

 of Ciliata were so well done that they are of value even at the present 

 time. Lamarck (1816) named Folliculina. 



At the beginning of the nineteenth century the cylcosis in Para- 

 mecium was brought to light by Gruithuisen. Goldfuss (1817) coined 

 the term Protozoa, including in it the coelenterates. Nine years 

 later there appeared d'Orbigny's systematic study of the Foramini- 



