64 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Mat 
where the water is becoming cloudy, and this is where 
the protoplasmic unit, as it has been called, appears. 
Here the “‘jelly-specks” eventuate. It is hazy at first 
but at last there appears an amoeba. This is the thing 
called der kleine Proteus by Rosel,in 1755, in his Insecten 
Belustigung. Dr. Leidy says that it is this thing which . 
Rosel called an ameeba in his Recreation Among Insects, 
published in Nurenberg. He accompanied his descrip- - 
tions with nineteen well-executed and colored figures en- 
graved by himself. In fact this is what the microscopist 
sees generally. 
But I think he can see something which appears also 
still more generally. In short I have seen this thing for 
several years, about forty, everywhere where moisture, 
not water exclusively, is present, In the green scum that | 
appears on trees, in or on clay, or on the soil that is in 
the fields or in gardens, and in fact everywhere, where or- 
ganic and inorganic matter is and is moistened. I saw it 
over forty years ago and have waited to publish it until 
now. There is a granular matter, so to call it, much,small- 
er than the tiniest amoeba that can be seen. It is called 
monad by Muller. We can see it when taking some clay 
and examining it under a microscope, by immersing it in 
water. A 1-12th of an inch, or a 1-16th of an inch ob- 
jective if it is well made, will show it very well. A 2th 
of an inch has shown it but not well. Itis not exactly 
round or spherical. 
It is somewhat oblong, nearly like an egg, a chicken’s 
egg, only it is the same shape at both ends, whilst the egg 
is longer at one side than theother. Then again it is not 
at rest. It is in motion, trembling on in its path. Not 
seeming to have any part formed for a head or other 
function, buttrembling and seeming unstable in being. 
It has been instanced as an example of Brownonian mo- 
tion, and it is Brownonian motion. 
The mode of motion of the granule has not. heat, it 
