1881.] 



MICEOSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



Ill 



of knowledge of infusoria. Trembly 

 described the Hydra and Stentor with 

 great accuracy, about this time. In 

 1786 Otto Frederick Muller pub- 

 lished a work with no less than fifty 

 plates and 367 pages of letter-press, 

 devoted to descriptions of about 300 

 species. 



Gluchen was the first to demon- 

 strate that infusoria assimilated finely 

 triturated carmine. Spallanzani de- 

 monstrated the " pulsating vesicle." 

 Up to 1830 all infusoria were classed 

 in tv/o orders ; one embracing the 

 rotifers, and the other, the apparently 

 structureless and homogeneous ani- 

 malcules. In 1838 Ehrenberg pub- 

 lished his great work, '' History of 

 Infusoria," which surprised the whole 

 scientific world. This treatise con- 

 tained 532 pages, with an atlas of 

 64 colored plates of several hundred 

 species. This work to-day remains 

 one of the recognized authorities, and 

 challenges our admiration for the 

 wonderful results obtained by this in- 

 defatigable worker, with the imper- 

 fect instruments used in his investi- 

 gations. 



In 1 841 Dujardin published his 

 celebrated work which gave entirely 

 new views of the organization of 

 many groups of infusoria, and cor- 

 rected some mistakes made by Ehren- 

 berg. He discovered that the Foram- 

 inifera possess no distinct organs, 

 that they have a simple gelatinous 

 body, capable of extending fine, 

 thread-like prolongations in every 

 direction, by means of which they 

 adhere to and creep over objects in 

 the water. He described and named 

 the Diffulgia and the naked amoeba, 

 and from their putting forth root-like 

 extensions for locomotive purposes, 

 gave the name of Rhizopoda to this 

 class of creatures. He entered into 

 an investigation of their anatomy, and 

 named the body-substance sarcode. 

 He denied that they had any nerv- 

 ous, muscular or complex digestive 

 system, as taught by Ehrenberg. He 

 found that food was not retained in 

 any permanent stomach-sacs, but 



passed into the sarcode-mass to be 

 expelled anywhere after the nutritive 

 portions had been absorbed. 



In 1845 Carl Theodore von Siebold 

 came to the front, asserting the 

 unicellular nature of infusoria. He 

 established the sub-kingdoip Proto- 

 zoa, and divided it into Rhizopoda 

 and Infusoria. 



In 1860-61 Max Schultze devel- 

 oped and modified the theories of 

 Siebold. He claimed that in many 

 cases there was no distinct cell-wall, 

 but that the cell was made up of a mul- 

 tiplicity of cells without walls, indis- 

 tinctly amalgamated with each other. 

 He gave the name protoplasm to the 

 cell that seemed to have no cell-wall. 

 He originated the idea that the cell- 

 contents of all animal and vegetable 

 organisms are made up of a similar 

 protoplasmic basis that is typified in 

 the amoeba, as a mere speck of ani- 

 mated, undifferentiated protoplasm. 



In 1 86 1 Andrew Pritchard com- 

 piled his work, but gave us nothing 

 essentially new. In 1868 Prof. H. 

 James Clark, of this country, discov- 

 ered a new type of flagellate infusoria, 

 and announced that all sponges con- 

 sisted of a colonial family of flagellate 

 animalcules. In 1873-75 Dallinger 

 and Drysdale made some splendid 

 investigations with the improved mi- 

 croscopes then in use. The work prin- 

 cipally resulted in the discovery of the 

 rapid manner in which flagellate organ- 

 isms multiplied, and that like forms 

 beget like. In 1876-77 John Tyndall 

 made some important investigations 

 upon the organisms found in impure 

 air and in putrefying substances, 

 showing the vital persistence of pu- 

 trefactive and infective organisms. 

 This brings the history of infusoria 

 down to the present time. 



Oleomargarine and Butter, 



At a meeting of the New York 

 Microscopical Society, on May 6th, 

 the President spoke substantially as 

 follows : — 



The first patent for the manufac- 



