1 82 From Matter to Man. 



To follow our arguments intelligently, illustrations 

 are almost essential, for words fail to convey an ade- 

 quate idea of the beauty, the ugliness, or the intricacy 

 of the lowest forms of life especially. A study of 

 such an article as that of Professor Ray Lancaster 

 on the Protozoa in the Ency. Brit, would be of 

 immense service in understanding our exposition, as 

 well as be a revelation to the general reader. For it 

 is undoubtedly largely due to ignorance of the lower 

 forms of life and the intelligence which they exhibit, 

 that men in the mass have such a vain, conceited, and 

 preposterously exalted notion of themselves. 



Assuming, therefore, that our readers shall verify 

 our descriptions by a reference to the illustrated litera- 

 ture of the subject, we shall in our rapid survey of the 

 animal kingdom, confine ourselves to examples of 

 striking forms, striking functions, and such other 

 characteristics of the animal kingdom generally as 

 shall seem best suited to illustrate our argument. 



Commencing with unicellular animals, we find that 

 the simplest protozoa are but lumps of protoplasm 

 which exhibit no more apparent structure than a 

 speck of mucilage, yet the least of them manifest 

 complex life processes. 



Thus the protomonas is extremely voracious, and 

 is often seen stuffed with infusoria captured by its 

 pseudopodia. Instead of reproducing itself by fission, 

 it retracts its pseudopodia and becomes a perfect sphere. 

 The envelope then thickens and forms a membranous 

 cyst, while the internal protoplasm undergoes seg- 



