"W. C- M'Intosh on the Protozoic-Ahsorption Theory. 9 



scopic animals than has yet been discovered*. Besides, the 

 minute jellies and disintegrating particles of their fellows of 

 the deep are not unpalatable, and probably in many cases are 

 preferable to " diffused protoplasm " imbibed by their surfaces. 



If the reporters had prefixed to their theory f, which is 

 clearly a modification of Dr. Wallich's J, a statement of a 

 series of exact scientific experiments proving that the Protozoa 

 in question, or other free animals, lived not upon minute 

 organic particles, as other Rhizopoda do, but upon this invi- 

 sible " protoplasm " diffused through sea-water, or if they 

 had observed that when disintegrating particles were placed 

 near such Khizopoda there was no contact, but only a 

 patient expectation till the protoplasm got diffused through 

 sea- water, so as to enter their tissues by absorption, then there 

 would have been a basis for their argument. Such a founda- 

 tion there would have been, also, if they had stated the fact 

 that the beautiful and highly complex Eunice norvegica, an 

 annelid five inches long, provided with intricate dermal, mus- 

 cular, digestive, nervous, circulatory, branchial, and other 

 systems, can be preserved alive in fifteen ounces of the purest 

 (unchanged) sea-water, in a clean glass vessel §, for three 

 years — that large Nemerteans, like Lineus marinuSj can be 

 kept for a longer period, and regenerate lost portions of their 

 bodies (though their general bulk diminishes), no trace of 

 nourishment of any kind being visible, nor any change made 

 in the water. Further, they might have drawn upon their 

 experiences in this respect with many other Annelids, Echino- 

 derms, Mollusca, and Coelenterates, aiul called attention to the 

 remarkable tenacity of life in sea-water, under apparently 

 complete absence of all nourishment ; and, reviewing such 

 facts by the light of their discovery of "decomposable organic 

 matter," might have shown that, since animals so highly or- 

 ganized thus sustain life in sea-water, there must be some in- 

 herent aliment, capable of absorption, therein, and conse- 

 quently that there can be no difficulty in believing that vast 

 myriads of animals of the simplest structure live altogether on 

 this pabulum in the ocean-bed. 



The merje occurrence of some " decomposable organic mat- 

 ter " (to wit, " dilute protoplasm ") in sea-water in general, or 

 any sea-water in particular, it appears to me, cannot be ba- 

 lanced for a moment in such a case against well-ascertained 

 facts as to the mode of nourishment in the Rhizopoda. Be- 



* An interesting paper bearing on this question has recently been pub- 

 lished hy Dr. Karl Mobius, Zeitsch. w. Zool. xxi. Bd. 2. p. 294, and Ann. 

 Nat. Hist. ser. 4. vol. viii. 



t Proc. Ro)^ Soc. No. 121, p. 476 et seq. 



X North-Atlantic Sea-bed, pt, i. p. 131. § A jar with a glass cover. 



