IMPORTANCE OF THE PROTOZOA. Ill 



Protozoa are sufficient proofs of their vast importance in the 

 household of nature. Along with the Diatoms^ the Desmidias, 

 and other microscopical forms of vegetation on which their own 

 existence depends, they evidently constitute the bases on which 

 the superstructure of all the higher orders of animal life reposes. 

 Hosts of Kotiferse, minute Crustaceans, Annelides and Acalephae, 

 feed upon their inexhaustible legions, and serve in their turn 

 to sustain animals of a larger and still larger size, until finally 

 Man is enabled to feast on the teeming abundance of the lakes, 

 the rivers, and the seas. 



