Infusorial Circuit of Oenerations. 279 



grumose mass of " trabeculated albumen," however, keeps still in- 

 creasing to the appearance of a loose snow-ball as it were, and each 

 single trabecular joint assuming a sort of warped §-form and a 

 jerking spasmodic commotion, they at last tear loose singly, and 

 escape each as a lanceolate, warded and finely-tailed " Vibrio Termo 

 Dujard."* In consequence of its twisted shape, it makes its way 

 with a vacillating archimedian motion, being constantly turned 

 round as it is rushing onward. When about ^^ line long, it 

 already clearly reveals the (still warped, but finally flat) wafer- 

 shaped body ; and the longitudinal strise, fringed with an undu- 

 lating fleece, as well as the oblique, ciliate mouth, which also 

 characterize its later stages. From an oblong orbicular pouch- 

 shape, when about -gV of a line, it becomes round hke " navy "- 

 beans (up to 5V of a line) only a little tapering at the upper end ; 

 the small oblique mouth being a little above the middle. The 

 delicate longitudinal striae all over the body — melon-fashion — give 

 them an iridescent appearance, both under the microscope, singly, 

 and when swarming in masses on the surface, e. g. of aquaria, or of 

 the draining-pans of flower-stands. The strise are apparently set 

 with very soft undulating threads, resembling wool, nearly half a 

 diameter long, in likeness of " ginned " cotton-seed. This feature 

 is absolutely overlooked in most of the figures from Ehrenberg up 

 to the present day ; otherwise the former's " Paramecium Tioljpoda "t 

 would seem to represent a few of its onward developments. 



The body now commences to bisect, at first crosswise ; becoming 

 waisted, across the mouth, so that each half has a part of the old 

 one. After assuming the form of an 8, they, after long strugghng 

 and toiling, bisect, often spinning out a long gelatinous thread (as 

 of a limpid gum) and jerking each other most lustily ; but after 

 disruption they presently round ofi". 



In this condition, and the following, the bodies contain one 

 larger and a great many smaller granular pellets, — " yolks " or " ger- 

 minal specks," which I have not distinctly seen discharged. But 

 now the surface of the water becomes clouded with such granular 

 balls, of uniform molecules (about tAtt line in thickness) that like- 

 wise germinate into the fragiform clouds, alluded to in connection 

 with Vorticella, &c., and is covered with an apparently amorphous, 

 most delicate but cohesive pellicle (as of collodion) at the superficial 

 contact with air. All these forms, as above stated, when caught on 



* The name of " termo " (jepp.o)v, a boundary-pole or stake) probably referred, 

 originally, rather to the cylindric " battering-rams," extruded from diffluent " cur- 

 rant "-vesicles (or amcehci) of the Paramecium cloud-dissolution, as below detailed. 

 The albuminous Oxytricha-pellet is pretty well represented in A. Pritchard's ' A 

 History of Infusoria,' tab. xviii., fig. 69. The indistinct §-shaped (constituent or) 

 developing particles, however, are there technically represented by shading with 

 oross-strifo, conveying a false impression of their shape and structure. 



t • Abhandl. Berlin Acad. Wiss.,' 1834, tab. iii., fig. 3. 



