FIRST LECTURE. 



dredge, and placed under the microscope — under that instru- 

 ment which has conquered the mighty world of minuteness 

 for natural science — a very peculiar image is presented to the 

 astonished eye. 



We perceive a transparent jelly, with diminutive granules, 

 in its interior. We also frequently meet with small cor- 

 puscles, surrounded by this, consisting of carbonate of lime. 

 They look like our modern sleeve buttons. 



And this mass lives ! It changes from one shape to another 

 in slow metamorphosis, exhibiting a constant, though sluggish 

 restlessness. Separated portions present the same slow mu- 

 tability, the same life. 



The mass formed by this bathybius is a nitrogenous carbon 

 compound, distended in water, and of an extremely compli- 

 cated chemical structure. It belongs to the group of albumin- 

 ous bodies, and is called protoplasma. It coagulates in death, 

 and also at a relatively slight elevation of temperature. The 

 granules it encloses consist partly of coagulated albuminous 

 substances, partly of fat ; mineral substances are also not 

 wanting. 



Leaving the dark deep, and turning to the sunny surface 

 of the seas, we here meet with numerous small lumps of 



protoplasma, which 

 show the same vital 

 transformations , 

 shooting out process- 

 es, sometimes short, 

 sometimes longer, and 

 drawing the m i n 



such is the 



protamceba of our 



Fig. 2. These are the 



simplest organisms or forms of life. They increase by division. 



One of our most distinguished investigators, Haeckel, has 



called such a lowest being a cytode. 



We meet with similar organisms intermingled with these 

 cytodes in the water ; as, for example, the amoeba (Fig. '3), 



again ; 



Fig- 2. — Protamoeba. A, undivided : I?, commencing, 

 and C, completed division. 



