82 TOILERS IN THE SEA. 



" Introduction," it may be inferred that Dr. Carpenter 

 regarded the "cyclosis," or flowing of granules, in the 

 body, or extensions of the body, in the Foraminifera 

 and Polycystina, as something more than mechanical, 

 and of the nature of vital action. On the other hand, 

 Dr. Wallich maintains that the movement is one of 

 a purely mechanical nature, in terms which are 

 emphatic and not liable to be mistaken. " I feel 

 bound to express my conviction," he says, " that such 

 cyclosis is in no way to be regarded as an inde- 

 pendently acting vital function, resident either in the 

 protoplasm proper, or in the granules suspended 

 within it ; but is a purely mechanical result affecting 

 the granules, only through movements executed by 

 the vital contractility, which is an inherent attribute 

 of animal protoplasm. When these movement 

 cease the circulation of granules ceases ; when they 

 are resumed the circulation of granules is resumed 

 also. Notably in the Foraminifera and Polycystina, 

 these movements become manifest only to the extent 

 of causing a nearly constant efflux and influx, in 

 opposite directions, of the protoplasmic matter 

 entering into the formation of the pseudopodia, and 

 also in that portion of it which, in most cases, con- 

 s^itutes a delicate investing layer on the exterior 

 surface of the shells. It is, however, in the naked 

 Amoebae that the pseudo-cyclosis attains its most 

 energetic and characteristic limit, and we can most 



