1895.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 297 



What then are the manifestations of the life energy ? 

 And what are the processes which are discernible ? All 

 of us in whatever walk of life will recognize the saying 

 of Gould: "Now when one looks about him, the plainest, 

 largest fact he sees is that of the distinction between 

 living and lifeless things." 



As life goes on and works with power where the un- 

 aided eye fails to detect it, the microscope — marvelous 

 product of the life energy in the brain of man — shows 

 some of these hidden processes. It has done for the in- 

 finitely little on the earth what the telescope has done 

 for the infinitely great in the sky. 



Let us commence with the little and the simple. If a 

 drop of water from an aquarium, stream or pool is put 

 under the microscope many things appear. It is a little 

 world that one looks into, and like the greater one that 

 meets our eye on the streets, some things seem alive and 

 some lifeless. As we look we shall probably find, as in 

 the great world that the most sliQwy is liable in the end 

 to be the least interesting. In the microscopic world 

 there will probably appear one or more small rounded 

 masses which are almost colorless. If one of these is 

 watched, lo, it moves, not by walking or swimming, but 

 by streaming itself in the direction. First a slender or 

 blunt knob appears, then into it all of the rest of the mass 

 moves, and thus it has changed its position. If the ob- 

 servation is continued, this living speck, which is called 

 an amoeba, will be seen to approach some object and re- 

 treat; indeed, it comports itself, as if sensitive, with 

 likes and dislikes. If any object suitable for food is met 

 in its wanderings the living substance flows around it, 

 engulfs it and dissolves the nutrient portions and turns 

 them into its own living substance ; the lifeless has been 

 rendered alive. If the eye follows the speck of living 

 matter, the marvels do not cease. After it has grown to 

 a certain size, as if by an invisible string, it constricts it- 



