372 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Nov. 



flesh of more complex animals, led the French naturalist, 

 who was the first to indicate the true nature of the 

 Rhizopods, to give it the name of sarcode, from the Greek 

 signifying- fl.esh and form. But I think it can not be 

 too strongly impressed on the minds of the readers that 

 the sarcode of the Rhizopods and the protoplasm of all 

 living things not only look like but are the same thing. 

 Dr. Carpenter says "if the views which I have expressed 

 as to the nature and relations of their living substance 

 be correct, that substance does not present such differ- 

 entiation as is necessary to constitute what is commonly 

 understood as organization" even of the lowest degree 

 and simplest kind; so that the physiologist has here a 

 case in which those vital operations which he is accus- 

 tomed to see carried on by an elaborate apparatus, are 

 performed without any special instruments whatever — 

 a little particle of apparently homogeneous jelly changing 

 itself into a greater variety of forms than the fabled 

 Proteus, laying hold of its food without members, swal- 

 lowing without a mouth, digesting it without a stom- 

 ach, appropriating its nutritious material without 

 absorbent vessels or a circulating system moving from 

 place to place without muscles, feeling (if it has any 

 power to do so) without nerves, propagating itself with- 

 out genital apparatus, — and not only this, but in many 

 instances forming shelly coverings of a symmetry and 

 complexity not surpassed by those of any testaceous 

 animals." 



The Rhizopod moves by protruding some of its proto- 

 plasm about by means of portions which are known as 

 pseudopods from the Greek synifying false feet, for they 

 take the place of feet. These pseudopods are extremely 

 delicate. They often branch and assume a more or less 

 move-like appearance, whence Dujardin gave them the 

 name of Rhizopods. As Dr. Leidy says "It appears from 

 the researches, especially of British authorities, such as 



