86 JOURNAL OF THE 



often becomes larger tlian the original mass of protoplasm, 

 so that the latter forms bnt a thin layer snrrounding it 

 (Figs. 2, i6, 12). In this stage a psendopodenm or ray 

 may be presented (Fig. 12). 



Two heliazoa of the first stage were seen to come to- 

 gether, which, however, as in nearly all cases, was due to 

 the agitation of the water by the worms, and immediately 

 upon touching one another (Fig. 23), to fuse and run 

 together just as a drop of water fuses with another drop of 

 water. It is impossible to say which of the two was 

 devoured; both appeared to play an equal part, the vacuole 

 and nucleus of both being present, and the whole im- 

 mediately assuming a spherical form and appearing (Fig 3) 

 much like any one of the two of which it is now composed, 

 except that it has two vacuoles and two nuclei. In the 

 course of five minutes this young, two-vacuoled, heliazoan 

 had developed a ray, and in its interior the characteristic 

 axis thread could be distinctly seen (Fig. 20). The absence 

 or the number of rays when present in the young heliazoa 

 is of no special value, and varies with different individuals 

 of the same age, as will be seen from the figures. 



Whether this fusion of two individuals of the same spe- 

 cies be called eating or not does not concern us, and I shall 

 not attempt to discuss the subject here. As a matter of fact, 

 however, it is not conjugation for purposes of reproduction 

 .or rejuvenescence, as will be seen later; and, since we have 

 these animals developing by this method of increase as well 

 as by that of an undoubted eating of other animals, it 

 matters not, so far as development is concerned, whether 

 they appropriate material so near like that of their own 

 bodies that it needs no change to form a part of them, or 

 whether the food be different and hence have to be changed 

 or digested before it can be so appropriated. I have ob- 

 served farther advanced heliazoa capture infusoria and 

 amoeba and surround them, and draw them into their 



