THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 29 1 



Pouchet says that of all the myriads he has seen he has 

 never been able to observe an actual division take 

 place, and only four or five times has he found two in- 

 dividuals so united as to suggest that such a process 

 was taking or had taken place. And although M. Bal- 

 biani 1 has, of late,, re-asserted the great frequency of 

 the occurrence of fissiparous division amongst Paramecia, 

 still, in the face of so many statements to the contrary, 

 it would be well that his observations should be confirmed 

 by other observers. Quite recently, in an interesting 

 paper 2 c On the Anatomy of Stentor,' Dr. Moxon says 

 he has watched the process of fission, as it occurs in 

 Stentor cjeruleus. It does not take place longitudinally, 

 but rather in an oblique direction, and Dr. Moxon tells 

 us he has never known the whole process occupy less 

 than four or five hours. In a letter, which he kindly 

 wrote in reply to some of my queries, he says he has 

 also several times watched the process of division in 

 specimens belonging to the genus Stylonyckia. With 

 regard to these individuals Dr. Moxon says : c As to 

 the time occupied in the process it was too long to 

 allow of my watching it through. I tried to do so, 

 but found that in two hours very little progress had 



1 ' Compt. Rend.' torn. 1. p. 1191. Although the evidence brought 

 forward by M. Balbiani is very strong, it is by no means of such a nature 

 as to make it free from doubt. The rapid multiplication did not take 

 place under the eyes of the observer. And more than that, during the 

 first three or four days, the increase in the number of Infusoria was 

 often very slow. 



2 ' Journ. of Anat. and Physiol.' vol. iii. p. 279. ed. 1869. 



U 2 



