GLHANINGS. 237 
all points the conclusions of Huxley. The more recent investigations of 
the Challenger Expedition do not support these conclusions, but, as 
Professor Allman observes, ‘‘It is not easy to believe that the very 
elaborate investigations of Huxley and Haeckel can thus be disposed of.” 
Proropatuysius is the name given by Bessels (one of the explorers 
of the more recent and ill-fated Polaris Expedition) to masses of living 
undifferentiated protoplasm dredged from the Greenland Seas; but they 
are in all essential particulars undistinguishable from the Bathybius of 
the Porcupine Expedition, and so far Bessels’ observations confirm those 
above recorded. 
PRoTAM@BA PRIMITIVA is a name given by Haeckel to ‘little protoplas- 
mic lumps” found inhabiting the fresh waters in the neighbourhood of 
Jena. These, when placed under the microscope, were seen to have no 
constant shape, their outline being in a state of continual change, caused 
by the protrusion from various parts of their surface of broad lobes 
and thick finger-like projections (termed Pseudopodia,) which, after 
remaining visible for a time, would be withdrawn, to make their appear- 
ance again on some other part of the surface. They may be compared 
to minute detached pieces of Bathybius. 
Monera is the name given to agroup, including several other beings as 
simple as Protameba, described by various observers, and especially by 
Haeckel, who has given the name on account of the extreme simplicity 
of the beings included in it. 
Ama@Ba, a stage somewhat higher in the development of proto- 
plasmic beings, was the next thing glanced at by Prof. Allman. Widely 
distributed in the fresh and salt waters of Britain, and probably of almost 
all parts of the world, Amvbe are small particles of protoplasm closely 
resembling the Protameba just described. Like it they have no definite 
shape, and are perpetually changing their form, throwing out and drawing 
in thick lobes and finger-like pseudopodia, in which their body seems to 
flow away over the field of the microscope. They are, however, nc longer 
the homogeneous particle of protoplasm which forms the body of 
Protameba. Towards the centre, a small globular mass of firmer 
protoplasm has become differentiated from the remainder, and forms 
what is known as a nucleus, while the protoplasm, forming the extreme 
outer boundary, differs slightly from the rest, being more transparent, 
destitute of granules, and apparently somewhat firmer than the interior. 
There is also a “contractile vacuole,” a little rhythmically pulsating 
cavity of very frequent occurrence among those creatures which lie low 
down in the scale of life. 
Cuius.—Although for 200 years the Amaba has been sought for in 
all likely places, and its Protean changes have never ceased to be a source 
of amazement, it is only the science of our own days which has revealed 
its biological importance, and shown that in this little soft, nucleated 
particle we have a body whose significance for the morphology and 
physiology of living beings cannot be over-estimated, for in Amaba we 
have the essential characters of a cELL, the morphological unit of organi- 
sation, the physiological source of specialised function. 
BritisH Assocration.—At a recent meeting of the Leicester 
Corporation it was unanimously resolved, on the motion of Alderman 
Barfoot, to invite the British Association to hold its annual meeting in 
Leicester at the earliest possible date. Leicester has never before been 
able to invite the Association for want of a sufficiently large room in 
which to hear the President’s address; this need has now been supplied 
by the erection of the Royal Opera House. The invitation was, we 
understand, very favourably received by the Council of the British 
Association, so that after Swansea (1880,) with Professor Ramsay as Presi- 
dent, and York (1881,) we expect an excellent meeting at Leicester in 1882. 
