PROTOPLASM— THE AMOEBA 



similar differences between the haemoglobins of red-l)Ioodcd 

 animals and these differences are to some extent characteristic 

 of the species concerned. 



Other elements than those found in proteins also occur 

 in the bodies of plants and animals. Phosphorus, chlorine, 

 potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium and iron are all 

 found, having been taken in with the food or water. 



Further, living protoplasm has not a constant composition. 

 It is changing every moment, taking new matter into itself 

 and discharging other matter. It is, in fact, like a stream or 

 flame. Six centuries before Christ, Buddha, in his last re- 

 incarnation, maintained that "Life is a flame," and, like a 

 flame, protoplasm is never the same but always changing its 

 composition. It is a living example of the saying of Alphonse 

 Karr about the French Government under Louis Philippe: 

 "Plus 9a change plus e'est la meme chose." 



The Amoeba 



To form an idea of what protoplasm looks like one might 

 examine with a microscope the uncooked white, albumen^ of 

 an egg, or a drop of fairly thin 

 gum. Both are glairy, semi- 

 transparent, full of particles: 

 but neither of them is proto- 

 plasm. Perhaps the largest 

 masses of more or less undiffer- 

 entiated protoplasm easily 

 visible to the naked eye are 

 those curious slime-fungi, 

 Myxomycetes, which are 

 found several inches in 

 diameter slithering about 

 on dead and rotten wood 

 in damp forests. But one 

 cannot always find slime- 

 fungi, and a better plan is to examine under the microscope 

 the unicellular organism known as Amoeba. Amoebae are 

 common enough in both fresh and salt water and in the 

 soil. They are irregular in shape and their outline is 



Fig. 1. A Myxomycete, Chondrioderma 

 dijforme. From Strasburger. 



