102 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



coloured with carmine, others with, indigo and other colouring matters. 

 He saw, besides, some coloured globules, nearly uniform in size, in 

 different individuals of the same species. From this he arrived at 

 the conclusion that the colouring matter was deposited in many of the 

 surrounding dimples. Ehrenherg thought that each of these dimples 

 was a stomach, and that the introduction of the food into the interior 

 of these reservoirs, as well as the evacuations, were produced by means 

 of an intestine around which these stomachs are arranged. In some 

 cases he even thought he could distinguish the outlines of this intestinal 

 canal, and its connection with numbers of ampula or bladders. Gene- 

 ralizing the conclusions drawn from his observations, in short, we find 

 that his class, Infusoria, embraced two very different forms of animal 

 life, which he divided into Infusoria, Polygastrica, and Roti/era, the 

 latter division including those known as Wheel animalcules ; the 

 Polygastrica being so called from his idea that the typical forms 

 possessed a number of stomachs. In some, Ehrenberg counted four 

 stomachs, an organization which brings these microscopic beings into 

 a strange kind of comparison with the ox and the goat. In others he 

 counted two stomachs. 



Other observers were not slow in raising objections to these views. 

 Dujardin, especially, was much opposed to the batch of stomachs attri- 

 buted to these creatures by the German physiologist. He attempted 

 to establish the fact that the coloured globules which appeared in 

 the bodies of the Infusoria, while subjected to a regimen of carmine and 

 indigo, are not confined by a membrane ; that is to say, they are not 

 contained in intestinal sacs. According to Milne Edwards, " they are 

 a species of basins, constituted," he says, " by the alimentary matter 

 with which each is gorged, united into a rounded pasty mass, where it 

 could no longer be dispersed, but would continue to advance, still pre- 

 serving its form. We have, in short, seen these spherules changing 

 their places, and passing one another in their progress from the mouth 

 to the intestinal canal. That they could not do this is evident, if many 

 stomachs were attached to the intestinal canal !" 



This opinion, due to the patient and precise studies of Dujardin, 

 has been adopted by most naturalists of eminence. Besides, this learned 

 microscopist does not admit that there was in the sarcodic mass of 

 Infusoria any pre-existent cavity destined to receive the food. In a 

 word, he does not recognise any stomach whatever. This view of 



