136 The Mickoscope. 



said that all diatoms take the stain when living : all with which I 

 have experimented do, these embracing all those generally found in 

 fresh water. The fixed forms, howevei', as well as the discoidal 

 take the stain more faintly, and in these the covering does not, 

 so far as I have observed, leave the frustule. 



We know no reason why cyclosis should take place on the in- 

 side of a cell wall. The phenomenon was first obsei^ved there for 

 the reason that men became confused on the subject of the diatomic 

 movement, owing, perhaps, to the secondary movement communi- 

 cated to the organism itself, than that the one mode was not as 

 common as the other in the protophyta. As to what cyclosis is, we 

 can conjecture that it is a necessary motion communicated to the 

 fluid from which material is formed for the use of the force we 

 call life, for the purpose of bringing the particles of matter sought 

 more readily in contact with the forming poAver. Further than 

 this we, in our present knowledge, cannot go. If we attempt to 

 lift this shadow-veil di'awn on the dim boundary of human knowl- 

 edge, we must repeat the sublime, though childish, Hebraic enun- 

 ciation, God did it, or hold our tongues until we have more light. 

 There is still, however, vast room for investigation this side of that 

 boundary. Men have paid too little attention to functions, modes 

 and environments, and too much to type, form and nomenclature. 

 Perhaps, because the latter were more gross, material — not so elusive 

 as the former. INIen will mark out roads for nature to travel, and 

 insist on nature walking therein. Witness the long attempts to have 

 diatoms move by a stream of water pouring in one end and out 

 of the other. How absurd must such a theory seem to any intelligent 

 man who will carefully watch the diatom cell with a good glass one 

 hour ! He will see that small particles are carried from one end of 

 the frustule like chips on a little rippling current ; he will see larger 

 particles pushed and pulled as if the little form had feet and hands ; 

 now the particle moves, and now the diatom ; now both are at rest, 

 the rythmic motion changes direction ; now again they grapple like 

 two sentient beings contending for the mastery, nor is there rest for 

 diatom or particle so long as they are in contact. The observer can 

 see that the force exerted is immediately on the surface of the dia- 

 tom, that this force is exerted over the surface from end to end of 

 the diatom, and that the force is rythmic and changes the direction 

 of the push or pull, whatever he calls it. Then he arises and ad- 

 mits the stream of water theory because his fathers did, notwith- 

 standing he says he didn't see it. And is it not too much trouble to 

 think on what he did see ? If he had seen the lines on pellucida 

 no thoughts would be required. 



