78 TOILERS IN THE SEA. 



visible retraction of the pseudopodium, that any 

 small body, not capable of offering active resistance, 

 is conveyed to its base. Now and then it seems as 

 if the appetite of the Actinophrys were sated, or the 

 prey not approved of, for after a few seconds the 

 movements of the latter feebly recommence, and it 

 glides off the pseudopodium, without any effort on 

 the part of the Actinophrys to retain it. When, on 

 the other hand, the captive is to be used as food, 

 it becomes invested by an expansion of the proto- 

 plasmic substance which the body of the Actino- 

 phrys sends forth on either side of that of the captive, 

 so as to meet and enclose it ; and thus a marked pro- 

 minence is formed, which gradually subsides as the 

 food is drawn more completely into the interior. 

 There can be no doubt whatever that aliment may 

 be thus ingested at any part of the surface, a new 

 mouth, so to speak, being extemporised whenever 

 and wherever there is occasion for it. The struggles 

 of the larger animals, and the ciliary action of the 

 Infusoria, may sometimes be observed to continue 

 even after they have been thus received into the 

 body ; but these movements at last cease, and the 

 process of digestion then begins. Whilst the diges- 

 tive process, which usually occupies some hours, 

 is going on, a sort of slow circulation takes place in 

 the entire mass of the sarcode. If, as often happens, 

 the body taken in as food possesses some hard 



