30 , INFUSORIA AND RHIZOPODA. . <§, 17. 



These movements succeed each other at more or less regular intervals. 

 When these cavities are numerous, a certain order in the succession and 

 alternation of their contractions cannot always be observed. It is very 

 probable that their liquid contained during the diastole is only the nutri- 

 tive fluid of the parenchyma, and to which it returns during the systole. 

 In this way it has a constant renewal, and all stagnation is prevented. 

 This arrangement constitutes the first appearance of a circulatory system, 

 and the^rs^ attempt at a circulation of nutritive fiuids. 



From an optical illusion similar to the one mentioned as belonging to 

 the vacuolae C^ 13) the liquid of these pulsating cavities has a reddish hue.'" 



§ n. 



A round, pulsating cavity is found in the genera Vorticella, Epistylis, 

 Loxodes, and in the following species: — Amaiba diffluens, Faramcecium 

 kolpoda, Styloriychia mytilus, Euplotes patella, 8fC. With Actinophrys, 

 Bursaria, Trichodina, there are from one to two ; with Arcella vulgaris, 

 three to four ; with Nassula elegans, there are four placed in a longitudinal 

 line on the dorsal surface. With Trachelius meleagris, there is a series 

 of eight to twelve upon the sides of the body, and with the various species 

 of AmpMleptus there are fifteen to sixteen arranged more or less regularly. 

 With Stentor, there is a large cavity in the anterior portion of the body, 

 and many similar cavities appear upon the sides, united sometimes into 

 one long canal. A similar canal traverses the entire body of Spirostomum 

 ambiguum, and Opalina planariarum. With Faramcecium aurelia, the two 

 round cavities present a remarkable aspect, being surrounded by five or 

 seven others, small and pyriform, the top of which being directed outward, 

 the whole has a star-like appearance.'" During the pulsation, often the 

 entire star disappears, sometimes only the two central cavities, and in some 

 cases the rays only. 



These cavities, entirely disappearing in the systole, reappear in the dias- 

 tole, and usually in the same place and with the same form and number. 

 This would lead us to conclude that they are not simple excavations in 

 parenchyma, but real vesicles or vessels, the walls of which are so excess- 

 ively thin as to elude the highest microscopic power. 



In some individuals, as, for instance, with Trachelius lamella, there 

 appear, during the diastole, two or three small vesicles at the extremity of 

 the body, which, after having increased in size, blend into one which is 

 very large. These are probably only globules of nutritive fluid, separated 

 from the parenchyma. Similar phenomena are observed in Phialina ver- 

 micularis and Bursaria cordiformis. 



It sometimes happens with these animals that a forcible contraction of 

 the whole body divides an elongated cavity into two spherical portions, as 



1 Ehrenbersr (loc. cit. p. 321, Tiif. XXXIEI. fig. in the body. It really seems very strange that 

 viii.), deceived by this illusion, liiis taken the ei],'ht these animals should practise uninterruptedly these 

 to twelve CDUtrac.tile cavities of YVacAe/tM,? ?ne/ca- pollutions throughout their entire life. These ani- 

 on's for gtomachal cells, filled with red gastric juice, nials have neither testicles nor ovaries, and the 

 lie has also regarded these cavities, when simple or function of these cavities is not, therefore, that 

 double, as seminal vesicles. (Abhandl. d. Iterliner assigned to them by fChrenben;, — but is, as I 

 Akad. 1833, p. 172,-1835 p. 158.) In species Hunk, with /r/eirmaHn CArch. f. Naturg. 1835, I. 

 having but few, he has very arbitrarily decided that p. 12), ana^l^•ous to that of a heart, 

 someareseminal vesicles, others stomachal pouches, ^ JJujardin, Ann. d. Sc. Nat. Zoo], tome X. PI. 

 as, for example, in Am/j/iileptus (loc. cit. p. 355). XV. fig. 3; also, " Infusoires," PI. VIII. fig. 6. 

 According to him, the seminal vesicles, upon con- Elirenberg's plates of these star-like vesicles ar» 

 traction, pour the sperm upon the eggs contained incorrect. 



