40 TOILERS IN THE SEA. 



contractile processes from the opening of the shell, 

 and crawled about upon the object-glass. The parts 

 of the body enclosed in the transparent shell could 

 be examined with great accuracy under the highest 

 magnifying powers, and were seen to consist of a 

 transparent, very finely-granular, colourless material, 

 of which the protruded filaments were an immediate 

 continuation, and in which were imbedded minute 

 sharply-defined granules, protein and fat molecules, 

 some of considerable size, and angular, like the vitel- 

 line plates in the ovum of fishes. From the circum- 

 stances under which these young (Miliolidce) made 

 their appearance, it might be concluded that they 

 must necessarily quit the parent in a tolerably perfect 

 condition, and that it was probable they acquire the 

 calcareous shell whilst still within the mother." The 

 shell of the parent was broken up and only found to 

 contain a little granular matter. " The almost com- 

 plete absence of any organic contents in the shell of 

 an individual, which from eight to fourteen days pre- 

 viously was creeping about, renders it probable that 

 the whole, or, at any rate, the main part of the body, 

 had been transformed into young ones." * 



Subsequently, the same author recorded similar 

 > experiences in other species observed in a bottle of 



1 " Observations on Reproduction of the Rhizopoda," by 

 Prof. Max Schultze. Abstracted in Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., 

 -vol. v. (1857) p. 220. 



