52 CURREY, ON THE PHYTOZOA OF ANTHERIDIA. 



form there in the first instance a skin which covers the sur- 

 face of the water. The form of the pliytozoa is distinguishable 

 in the granulated and serpentine disposition of the granules 

 of this skin. Beneath this skin other phytozoa are seen in 

 the state of motion peculiar to them. In the course of a few 

 hours these latter phytozoa assume the form of Ehrenberg's 

 genera Spirillum and Vibrio differing from that of the phytozoa 

 only in the manifest articulation, and in the absence of cilia. 

 At a later period the granulated skin extends from the margin 

 over the whole surface of the drop of water, and the phytozoa 

 underneath this skin are now seen, without any cessation of 

 their motion, to assume forms similar to those of the Spirilla 

 and Vibriones. The forms of Vibrio rugiila and V. prolifera 

 are most frequent. 



After the first twelve hours all the phytozoa disappear, 

 and there remain only the Spirilla and Vibriones in number 

 proportionate to that of the original phytozoa. 



The Spirilla and Vibriones exist for a very short time. 

 After twenty-four hours most of them, after forty-eight hours 

 all of them, have become disarticulated. The whole drop is 

 now rendered milky and turbid by numberless globules 

 similar to Monas crepusculum in a state of active motion. 



The observer may be fully convinced that tlie forms of Spi- 

 rillum, Vibrio, and Monas, do not originate from extraneous 

 germs, and that they are not formed out of shapeless matter, 

 but that they originate from the undecomposed substance of 

 the phytozoa. The unusual rapidity of the transformations 

 by which the process is kept, as it were, continually before 

 the eye of the observer is a favourable circumstance in these 

 observations. 



It is an important circumstance that Spirillum does not 

 originate from Monas, but always Monas from Spirillu7n. 



After forty-eight hours, it frequently happens that amongst 

 the moving monads which have hitherto been uniformly dis- 

 tributed through the water, small groups consisting of several 

 hundreds of them are to be seen in which the primary active 

 motion has ceased. Shortly afterwards a sharply-defined 

 hyaline skin is formed round these groups, and, as it would 

 seem, by the amalgamation or conjunction of the exterior 

 molecules ; by this means the young Amaba (Proteus) is 

 formed. This transformation takes place pretty regularly 

 towards the end of the third day. 



The original size of the Amceba is 1-300'" in diameter. In 

 the course of three or four days it grows to about the size of 

 1-100'". This species differs from the Amabai hitherto de- 

 scribed in the fact that the inner portion of the body which 



