343 



so much in the forms which he states were produced, as in the 

 general changes preceding the production. The pellicle con- 

 sists of an aggregation of monads and bacteria, or " granules," 

 in a transparent jelly-like stratum.^ It is this last which 

 seems really to be of fundamental importance. " Areas of 

 differentiation " are (jraduallij formed in it, which are lighter 

 in aspect from an increase of tlie jelly-like material between 

 the granules (Fig. 3). Tliese areas undergo a kind of segmen- 

 tation, finally breaking up into '' unicellular organisms," one 

 of which exhibited partial amoeboid movements. But in all 

 these changes the granules apparently take little if any part, 

 and it would seem far from iinreasonable to suppose that they 

 have no more than an accidental connection with the " areas/' 

 which it is just as likely are distinct living things, originating, 

 like the bacteria, from germs, and increasing in size by legu- 





C\ 





^, 



^M^^'}y^^ 



ElG. 



Tig. 4. 



lar nutrition, and finally breaking up into individualized 

 segments. According to Pouchet, who is endorsed by Dr. 

 Hughes Bennett," the development of new forms takes place 



1 Portions of a jelly-like material with granules, are represented in figs. 

 14^ and 15r/, and more unsatisfactory objects it is dillicult to conceive. Tig. 

 Wb seems to be not a spore case but a similar portion. One of the greatest 

 difficulties in seeing clearly any result conuected with spontaneous genera- 

 tion is the apparent insep'arableness with it of crude and uuinlerpretable 

 figures. 



'^ " On the Molecular Origin of Infusoria," ' Popular Science Eeview,' 

 vol. viii, ]). 55. This is practically a revival of BuH'on's 'Theory of Organic 

 Molecules.' 



