SANDSTONE. 



[ 674 ] 



SARCODE. 



called sponge-sand, is very rich in the above 

 organic bodies, especially the Foraininifera. 



SANDSTONE. See ROCKS. 



SAN'IDINE. See ROCKS. 



SAP. A name vaguely applied to the 

 watery juices contained in living plants. 

 Sap flowing from wounds may contain 

 various organized substances, such as starch- 

 granules, chlorophyll-globules, protoplasm, 

 and also raphides ; but it cannot be said to 

 have any proper microscopic characters. 



SAPROLEG'NIA. See ACHLYA. 



SARACENA'RIA, Defrance. A short, 

 thick, triangular modification of Cristdlaria. 

 Recent and fossil. (Parker and Jones, Ann. 

 N.H. 3. xii.217.) 



SAR'CINA, Goodsir. A curious organ- 

 ism, formerly placed among the Palmel- 

 lacese from considerations relating to its 

 structure, but which, from its habitat and 

 general characters, is now referred to the 

 Schizomycetous Fungi. Sarcina ventriculi 

 (PI. 7. fig. 5 a and b) is sometimes found in 

 great abundance in the vomited contents of 

 the stomach of the human subject, also in 

 the stomach after death, where no disorder 

 had appeared during life. It consists of 

 minute, cubical, oblong, or even irregular 

 masses, of considerable consistence, com- 

 posed 'of four, eight, sixteen, sixty-four or 

 more, squarish cells contained in a tough 

 transparent frond, apparently composed of 

 the cell-membranes of these cells. The 

 cells are always most closely connected in 

 groups of four, which stand a little more 

 apart from each other in the secondary 

 groups of sixteen ; these again have a 

 stronger line of demarcation between them 

 when they are collected into tertiary groups 

 of sixty-four (PL 7. fig. 5 a, b). the size 

 of the primary cell% of nuclei of Robin 

 appears to vary slightly ; we find their 

 diameter about 1-16,000"; they have a 

 slight brownish tint, which imparts a colour 

 to the whole mass. Iodine colours the 

 fronds brown ; alcohol contracts them a 

 little. Nitric acid does not dissolve them, 

 even when heat is applied. Alkalies cause 

 the fronds to break up into their constituent 

 components. The plant appears to increase 

 by the division of the contents of its ulti- 

 mate cells into four and the formation of a 

 new membrane around each portion, the 

 groups remaining attached a longer or 

 shorter time according to circumstances. 

 Berkeley has in vain tried to get it to ger- 

 minate in sugar and water. 



It is stated to have been found also in the 



lung, and the pus of pulmonary abscess, the 

 blood, the urine, the faeces, and in the sto- 

 mach of the rabbit. According to Ferrier, 

 it is normal or constantly present in the 

 blood of man and animals ; and may be 

 readily obtained by keeping blood in tubes, 

 stopped with wool, for a week or ten days, 

 at a temperature of 100. 



We have never found it, except in the 

 contents of the stomach. 



Robin and Rabenhorst place Sarcina in 

 the genus Merismop&dia ; but its cubical 

 form and the absence of chlorophyll at once 

 separate it. 



BIBL. Goodsir, Ed. Med. and Sura. Jn. 

 1842, 430; An. and Path. Obs. 1845; Na- 

 geli, Einz. Alg. 2 ; Robin, Veg. Parasit. 331 ; 

 Rossmann, Flora, 1857, 641 ; Stephens, 

 Ann. N. H. 2. xx. 514 ; Ferrier, Qu. Mic. 

 Jn. 1872, xii. 163 ; Lorstofer, Wien. Jahrb. 

 1872. 



SARCOCH'ITUM, Hass. A genus of 

 Infundibulate Ctenostomatous Polyzoa, of 

 the family Alcyonidiidae. 



Char. Incrusting, covered with perforate 

 prominences in which the cells are im- 

 mersed; ova scattered singly throughout. 

 One species : 



S. polyoum. On Fucus serratus. 



BIBL. Hassall, Ann. N. H. 1851, vii. 484; 

 referred to Alcyonidium. 



SARCODE. A term applied by Dujardin 

 to the gelatinous, homogeneous, diaphanous 

 proteine substance occurring abundantly in 

 very young animals, the larvse of insects, 

 embryos of the Vertebrata, worms, zoo- 

 phytes, &c. ; it is synonymous with proto- 

 plasm. It constitutes the whole of some 

 of the lower animals, as the Atncebce. It 

 may be readily studied when exuding from 

 around the body of the intestinal parenchy- 

 inatous worms, as Distoma, Cysticercus, 

 Tcenia, &c., or almost any of the Infusoria, 

 placed alive in water between two plates of 

 glass. In the course of a short time, the 

 bodies of the animals are seen to be bordered 

 with a row of projecting diaphanous glo- 

 bules (PI. 32. fig. 2 a), frequently more or 

 less pressed together, which after a time be- 

 come separated and float in the liquid, espe- 

 cially if it be shaken. Spherical cavities 

 or vacuoles are soon perceptible in these 

 globules of sarcode (PI. 32. fig. 26), the 

 nature of which is readily determined by 

 comparing the refraction of the light at 

 their circumference with that at the circum- 

 ference of the globule.-* themselves ; for on 

 elevating the object-glass, the centre of the 



