84 



OF THE ANIMALCULES OF THE RED SNOW. 



globules were generated by the Philodina, and are to be found in the 

 glandular appendages of the intestines. To assure myself of this, I fed 

 some Philodinas with indigo, and by this I distinctly ascertained that the 

 globules in question were situated exterior to the intestinal canal. But 

 as very many of these same globules were found isolated in the snow, it 

 became a matter of doubt whether those were the eggs of Philodina, or 

 really those of Protococcus. I soon found the solution of this problem, 

 by observing one of the Philodinas in the act of voiding the eggs ; from 

 that time it was evident that these animals do not always deposit eggs 

 fully formed, but that they give out occasionally some not perfectly de- 

 veloped, and these are doubtless the globules, which, up to the present 

 time, having been considered as those of Protococcus, are really animal 

 organisms, the eggs of Philodina. When they are of a rosaceous tinge, 

 I look upon them as winter-eggs, analogous to those of many of the Ro- 

 tiferse, which Ehrenberg has figured at their full development. I after- 

 wards met with these several forms of eggs together with the Philodina, 

 in the crevices of a polished rock below the glacier of Rosenlain, in the 

 vicinity of Guttannen, and even on the borders of the lake of Neuchatel, 

 where the Philodina roseola with coloured eyes is very abundant. 



After what has" 1 been stated, if 

 there really exists Protococcus inde- 

 pendently of these eggs (which does 

 not appear to me likely, at least 

 in the red snow of the Alps), it must 

 prove that their identity is such, 

 as to be mistaken the one for the 

 other. Future researches may pro- 

 bably elucidate their distinguishing 

 characters ; for M. Joli, in his work 

 on the salt-water ditches of the south 

 of France, regards equally as Infusoria, 

 those microscopic bodies which Turpin 

 determined as belonging to the genus 

 Protococcus. 



In theaccompanyingfigure, 1 , the Phi- 

 lodina rosea * of the red snow, with the 

 different forms of its eggs, is seen mag- 

 nified 360 diameters. The animal is 



* The animal is here represented only one half the size as in the original plate, 

 the eggs are the full size. 



