Dr. C. F. J. Lachmann 07i the Organisation of Infusoria. 219 



afterwards, also made me consider the existence of an anus pro- 

 bable. Last summer, Professor J. Miiller, in company with 

 M. E. Claparede and myself, observed gi-eat numbers of an ani- 

 malcule, which was probably Bodo grandis, Ehrbg., but might also 

 have been an Astasia, and which devoured Vibriones of two to four 

 times its own length : in this way the animalcules acquired the 

 most extraordinary forms, and the mouth was close to the in- 

 sertion of the Hagellum. With some attention, one or more 

 contractile vesicles may be detected in all transparent animals 

 of this family; of the more opake species I was also able to 

 observe this and its contractions in the anterior part of the body 

 in Chilomonas Paramecium and Cryptomonas ovata. 



The Volvocince, Astasiece and DinobryincB must apparently be 

 arranged close to these animals, or at least those which possess a 

 contractile space, although they have not yet beenobserved feeding. 

 That they really receive no nourishment into an alimentary cavity, 

 is certainly not proved. In certain cases Perty states that he has 

 found very line vegetable filaments in Euglence ; but even if we do 

 not regard this statement as sufficient for the observation of the 

 eating, yet we have very recently ascertained modes of -taking 

 nourishment by Infusoria which might possibly occur also in 

 the Volvocince, &c., when it w^ould certainly not appear by any 

 means wonderful that they should only be discovei-ed at so late 

 a period. Has not Claparede* only just made us exactly ac- 

 quainted with the process of feeding in Actijiophrys ? If a 

 similar mode of feeding, by the reception of the food in a pro- 

 cess suddenly thrown out, also takes place in the above-men- 

 tioned creatures, it would be rarely observable in them, and it 

 would only be by a happy chance that we should perceive the 

 short moment of feeding; and then, if the nourishment con- 

 sisted of small monads which are easily liquefied, we should not 

 recognize them as such in the body of the animal. The observa- 

 tion would be equally rare and difficult if these animals, like the 

 AcinetcB {vide infra), extracted the fluids of other animals by 

 means of retractile suckers ; and this is the less improbable, as 

 Dr. Wagener has communicated to the Society of Naturalists of 

 Berlin f an observation of Dr. Lieberki.ihn, who saw a flagellated 

 Infusorium swim up to anothei-, attach itself to this by a pro- 

 cess projecting from one end, and thus suck out its contents. 

 But even though the feeding of these creatures has not yet been 

 seen J, I think we must, from analogy, refer them to the animal 

 kingdom. 



* Ueber Actinophrys Eichhornii, Miiller's Archiv, 1854, p. 54 ; trans- 

 lated in the Annals, vol. xv. 1855, pp. 211 & 285. 

 t In the July Meeting, 1855. 

 X It is probable that a mouth will be discovered in all aquatic Infusoria, 



