EARLY DISCOVERIES BY THE MICROSCOPE. 27 



matter by absorption from the inorganic ele- 

 ments on its exterior. The former is the cha- 

 racteristic of the animal kingdom as a whole ; 

 the latter is the attribute of the vegetable." 1 



In the application of his definition, Dr. Car- 

 penter would very much restrict the old term 

 Infusoria, banish the term Polygastrica, and 

 class the Desmidiacece,Dmtomacew, Volvocinece, 

 &c., as Protophytes. Mr. Pritchard, again, con- 

 tends that many of the groups which have 

 recently been regarded as plants are true ani- 

 mals. Thus, speaking of the Volvocineas, he 

 states, in his work on Infusorial Animalcules 

 (p. 153, 1852), that " his own observations, con- 

 tinued through twenty-five years, induce him 

 firmly to believe in the animal nature of these 

 organisms" But it seems generally ruled by 

 the ablest naturalists, that Messrs. Kalfs and 

 Smith have decisively proved the former in his 

 work upon the Desmidice the latter in his 

 work upon the Diatomacece that both groups 

 must be reft from the Animal kingdom, in 

 which Ehrenberg would range them, and placed 

 in the Vegetable. In consequence, however, 



1 Carpenter on the Microscope, p. 263. 



