POLYGASTRIC ANIMALCULES. 543 



divided particles of colouring matter are suspended. The par- 

 ticles are observed to be drawn towards the mouth, by the action 

 of the cilia with which most of them are provided ; and before 

 long, the whole of the transparent body is seen to be studded 

 with coloured globules of an uniform size, many times larger 

 than the separate particles themselves. Sometimes these globules 

 are very numerous, amounting to more than one hundred. If 

 two kinds of colouring matter be put into the water, as for 

 instance carmine and indigo, separate pink and blue globules will 

 be seen in the bodies of some of the Animalcules. In many 

 species, there is evidently a second orifice communicating with 

 the interior of the body ; by which a part of the colouring matter, 

 and other substances taken in by the mouth, is afterwards 

 rejected. 



1118. From these facts it has been inferred by Ehrenberg, 

 that a large number of globular cavities exist in the substance of 

 the body, into which the food is received. He considers that 

 sometimes these communicate only with the mouth, as in the 

 Monas ; but that in general they are arranged along an intestinal 

 tube, into which they open by a short neck. The course of this 

 tube he infers from the disposition of the coloured globules, rather 

 than from any more distinct indication of its presence. Thus 

 in the Vorticella., he thinks that it returns to the neighbourhood 

 of the mouth ; whilst in Euchelys and Leucophrys it terminates 

 at the opposite extremity t>f the body, running straight in the 

 first from one end to the other, and in the second making two 

 spiral turns in its passage. He does not affirm that he has ever 

 distinctly seen food passing along this narrow intestine ; or that 

 he has been able to trace the walls of the globular stomachs, any 

 more than of this alimentary tube, when they are not filled out 

 with colouring particles. And his account of them, therefore, 

 can scarcely be regarded as free from doubt. 



1119. The views of Ehrenberg have not been by any means 

 universally received amongst Naturalists ; and many of those 

 who have paid most attention to the structure and habits of 

 these Infusoria, are of opinion that they are very erroneous. A 

 kind of circulation has been seen to be performed by the globular 



oo2 



