Enchelia.'] iNFrsoRTAT. animalctjLES. 533 



apart from each other, but never so widely as to form, a straight line. 

 (See fig. 265.*) Found on Mount Sinai. Size 1 -380th. 



Genus AcriNOPUiivs. The Him Aniinalctdes. — Eacholiau Infusoria, 

 of a globular shape, covered with setaceous tcntacula, but without 

 ribratUe cilia. The part at which the mouth is situated is trun- 

 cated (direct.) The progress of the discovery of the organization of 

 this genus is as follows : — In 1773 the mouth was indistinctly ob- 

 served; in 1783 both the mouth and reception of coloured food were 

 distinctly seen by Eickhorn; in 1777 Eickhorn noticed the erection 

 and depression of the tentacles or rays, and locomotion produced 

 thereby; in 1830 Ehrenberg saw the polygastric structure, and the 

 discharging orifice opposite to the mouth ; also a short proboscis in 

 A. sol. Granular matter, probably representing ova, is seen in all 

 the species. MiiUer saw a round gland, and Eickhorn self- 

 division. 



Dujardin has a genus Actinophrys Avhich agrees in the main with 

 that of Ehrenberg, but occuj^ies a much lower place in his system, 

 its affinities being rather with the Amoebm than with animalcules of 

 so high an organization as the Unchelia described by Ehrenberg. 

 The tbUowing are the characters of the family Actinophryens, in- 

 cludmg Actmo^ihrys, Acineta, and. Dendrosoma. " Animals without 

 appreciable organization, motionless or fixed, provided with variable 

 expansions, very slowly contractile, always simple, and the ex- 

 tremities of which, in contracting, often become globular" — and 

 it is added : — 



"The Actinophryens, whose organization seems as simple as that 

 of the Amcehece and Rhizopoda, are distinguished from these animals 

 by the extreme slowness with which they extend or retract their 

 expansions. Tliis slowness is such that one would many times doubt 

 theii' animality, were it not that by agitation of the liquid, or by the 

 contact of other bodies, the soft, glutinous consistence of their 

 bodies can be detected," and the variation, the retraction or elonga- 

 tion of their expansions, witnessed. In the interior, granules of 

 various sizes and vacuolte, often very large, are to be seen. The 

 thicker prolongations are called by Ehrenberg proboscides (trunks.) " 



KoUiker has of late investigated the organization of Actinophrys 



o 



