250 RELICS OF PRIMEVAL LIFE 



sarcode just as our bones do within our bodies. The 

 provision even for nourishing the interior of the 

 skeleton by tubuli and canals is in principle similar 

 to that involved in the Haversian canals, cells, and 

 canalicules of bone. The Protozoon of course knows 

 neither more nor less of this than the average 

 Englishman. It is altogether a matter of uncon- 

 scious growth. The process in the Protozoa strikes 

 some minds, however, as the more wonderful of the 

 two. It is, says an eminent modern physiologist, a 

 matter of " profound significance *' that this " particle 

 of jelly [the sarcode of a Foraminifer] is capable of 

 guiding physical forces in such a manner as to give 

 rise to these exquisite and almost mathematically 

 arranged structures." Respecting the structures 

 themselves, there is no exaggeration in this. No 

 arch or dome framed by human skill is more perfect 

 in beauty or in the realization of mechanical ideas 

 than the tests of some Foraminifera, and none is so 

 complete and wonderful in its internal structure. 

 The particle of jelly, however, is a figure of speech. 

 The body of the humblest Foraminifer is much more 

 than this. It is an organism with divers parts, as 

 we have already seen in a previous chapter, and it 

 is endowed with the mysterious forces of life which 



