20 ZOOLOGY. 



Moner for example, I'rotamceba is simply a speck or drop 

 of transparent, often colorless, viscid fluid, scarcely of more 

 consistency than, and in all apparent physical characters 

 identical with, the white of alien's egg. And yet this drop 

 of protoplasm has the power of absorbing the protoplasm of 

 other living beings, and thus of increasing in size i.e., 

 growing ; and in taking its food makes various movements, 

 one or more parts of its body being more movable than 



Fig. 9. Protomyxa avrantiaca. A, encyst ed. B. cyst filled with germs. C, germs 

 (a, d, c) issuing frotn the cyst. I), a young Protomyxa swallowing a diatom (a). 

 E, adult after enclosing or swallowing several shelled Infusoria. After Haeckel. 



others, the faculty of motion thus being for the moment 

 specialized ; it has apparently the power of selecting one 

 kind of food in preference to another, and, finally, of repro- 

 ducing its kind by a process not only of simple self -division, 

 but also of germ-production. In short, we may say of the 

 Moner what Foster says of the Amreba viz., (1) it is con- 

 tractile ; (2) it is irritable and automatic ; (3) it is receptive 



