174 Chronicles of Science. { Jan. 
Ameebina, by two gentlemen who, though they do not agree in all 
their results, will no doubt by a friendly rivalry the better tend to 
elucidate the truth. These are Dr. Wallich and Mr. H. J. Carter. 
Dr. Wallich insists upon the absolute necessity of long-continued 
and daily observation whenever it is desired to elucidate the characters 
and vital phenomena which appertain to the lowest forms of organic 
existence ; and entertains the view that probably many, if not all, the 
previously described species of Amoeba are referable to, and constitute 
mere phases of Ameba villosa, the most highly developed type. Mr. 
Carter, however, regards certain characters of primary importance, 
and typical of A. princeps (EKhr) as reconstituted by him, while Dr. 
Wallich urges these characters as distinctive of Ameba villosa as 
already described by him. The characters which Mr. Carter claims 
for his A. princeps are its large size and the number of granules it con- 
tains; its limacious though protean form, its lobed and obtuse 
pseudo-podia proceeding from a posterior end, normally capped with 
a tuft of villous prolongations; while the nucleolus is so much 
extended over the inner surface of the nuclear cell, that it passes 
beyond the equatorial line of the latter, preventing any halo round the 
nucleus, as in other Amcebee; but the border of this nucleus is wavy 
when it has attained the 450th of an inch in length. The anomaly in 
the configuration of the nucleus, however, Mr. Carter afterwards 
resigns as a distinctive character. With regard to the apparent 
circulation in these low organisms, Dr. Wallich believes that it is not 
a vital act, but a secondary and mere mechanical effect consequent on 
the inherent vital contractility of the sarcode. The particles simply 
flow along with the advancing rush of protoplasm, and there is no 
return stream. The numerous and lengthy papers of Dr. Wallich and 
Mr. Carter, in the ‘ Annals of Natural History,’ on the subject of these 
organisms tend to the combination not only of species, but of genera 
which have always hitherto been regarded as perfectly distinct. 
The difficulty of distinguishing the lowest animal forms from 
vegetable bodies has received a good illustration from some observa- 
tions of Mr. H. J. Carter, well known for his papers upon Rhizopods, 
on Difflugia. He has shown in this species (D. pyriformis) that 
chlorophyll cells exist as part of its organization, and that starch cells, 
until recently believed to be a peculiarly vegetable product, form 
part of its products. Moreover, he has observed conjugation similar to 
that of the contents of the cells of Spirogyra, and that apparently 
after this conjugation, when the body of the Difflugia is densely 
charged with chlorophyll cells and starch granules, the nucleus 
becomes charged with spherular, refractive, homogeneous bodies, 
which appear to be developed in the protoplasm that lines (?) the 
nucleus. These spherules pass from the nucleus into the body of the 
animal, and there, becoming granuliferous, so increase by duplicative 
division, as to form the chief bulk of the whole mass, while the chloro- 
phyll cells have entirely disappeared, and the starch granules have become 
more or less diminished innumber. Colourless specimens of Difflugia 
having been placed in water, after four days the bottom of the vessel 
became covered with granuliferous cells of the same size and appearance 
