276 On the Conjugation of Amoeba. 



space, and not for their dispersion over an extendol area ; and 

 ventured the assertion, though no evidence was then forthcoming 

 in support, " that those large Amoebae so frequently met with in 

 the autumn months are actually the incorporation of two individuals 

 in a copulative act," from which free-swimming ciliated germs 

 might eventually issue. Since that communication was made to 

 the Society, I have had an opportunity of obtaining strong cor- 

 roborative, if not entirely convincing, proof that that which was 

 then conjecturally advanced, is absolutely true as to the fact of con- 

 jugation, and I submit to your inspection a diagram of a large 



Amaba villosa. a, a, pseudopoda. 



Amoeba villosa which presents the appearance of the semi-union of 

 two individuals, both externally and internally, in the circulation 

 of their granules and food contents, at the moment preceding com- 

 plete mutual interpenetration. Moving rapidly by broad, rounded 

 pseudopoda thrown out from either side of the broader rounded 

 anterior portion — though never crossing a median line, clearly 

 defined by the circulating particles flowing in parallel lines within, 

 as indicated by the direction of the arrows in the diagram, no other 

 impression could be received than that a semi-conjugated condition 

 here presented itself. Unhappily its disappearance under a mass 

 of dirt, from which it never again emerged, precluded the possibility 

 of determining whether or not the amalgamation would in time 

 have become more perfect, and whether the sarcode masses of the 

 two would have so completely intermingled that it would have 

 ultimately borne the aspect of one large but ordinary Amoeba. 

 Assuming this to be an instance of true Amoeba conjugation, can 



