1870.] RITCHIE — ON AQUARIA STUDIES. 167 



this is a variety of Stlgeodonium. These are purely vegetable, 

 and are the resort of many little creatures which revel and hide 

 themselves among their tiny clusters of bands. 



The first intruder in the field of the microscope we would call 

 attention to is that shapeless mass near the centre. It looks like 

 a small piece of clear jelly with little black dots or granules 

 within. But see, it has changed its shape : it is, as it were, 

 running out ; a finger-hke process is flowing out here and there; 

 the granules also are moving. Again we look; it has now 

 assumed a shape something like an outline of a map of Italy. 

 While you are looking it has again changed. You ask, what is 

 that? That is one of the simplest forms of animal life; it is 

 called the A^nccba or Proteus. 



In the Amceha we see an animal that breathes without lungs 

 or gills, digests without a stomach, moves without limbs, 

 and contracts without muscles. Like other animals, of simple 

 type, which live for the most part in the deep sea, and which from 

 the possession of root-like feet, are called RJiizojpods, its body is 

 composed of a jelly-like substance called sarcode. Some of these 

 creatures have siliceous and some calcareous shells, while others 

 have none at all. You will ask how does the Amceha live, and 

 how does it feed ? We shall endeavor to shew. Although with- 

 out a nervous system, it is nevertheless very sensitive, as will be 

 seen. 



That other creature near it is a Rotifer or wheel-bearer. If 

 you watch you will now see how and upon what the Amceha feeds. 

 As its body flows and contracts, it is nearing the Rotifer which is 

 attached by its foot to the glass, nnconscious of his fate. 

 Presently the little mass of jelly flows and touches him, but too 

 late for the Rotifer to make his escape ; as if stimulated by the 

 contact, the Amceha has fairly covered him, and through its 

 transparent body the Rotifer s struggles for life are perceptible. 

 All is over with it now, the laws of absorption have so decreed 

 it, and soon nothing will be left of it but its silicious covering. 



This is the way the Amceha feeds, by absorbing the juices of 

 its victim. 



This creature is reproduced by fission, that is, by splitting or 

 dividing itself into pieces, each of which pieces becomes a perfect 

 animal. 



The wheel animalcule (Rotifer vulgaris) will be our next 

 subject for examination. He is many degrees higher in the scale 



