26 VIEWS OP THE MICROSCOPIC WORLD. 



long, a row of half a million placed closely side by side, would form a line only ten 

 feet and five inches in extent. Off the coast of Chili, at a distance of fifty miles 

 from shore, Darwin passed in the ship Beagle through wide bands of turbid water; 

 a single tract in one case comprising an area of several square miles. When 

 viewed at a distance the waves appeared red, but under the shade of the veseel, of 

 a deep chocolate color, and the line of division between the red and blue water was 

 clearly defined. Upon close examination in a glass, the water assumed a pale red 

 tint, and when viewed by the microscope was found crowded with animalcules one- 

 thousandth of an inch long, of an oval shape, and encircled at the middle with a 

 ring of cilia. They were beheld darting about in all directions and exploding, their 

 bodies bursting to pieces in a few seconds after their rapid motions had ceased. A. 

 stratum of red water, twenty-four miles long and seven broad, is mentioned by Dr. 

 Poeppig as occurring near Cape Pilares. When beheld from the mast-head it ap- 

 peared of a dark-red hue, but as the vessel advanced on her course it changed into 

 brilliant purple, while a rosy tint illumined the track of the keel. This water was 

 perfectly transparent, but small red specks could be perceived moving through it 

 in spiral lines. 



PROTOPHYTES. 



In the various infusions and fluids in which animalcules are found, minute 

 and curious organisms are frequently seen, moving rapidly about and apparently 

 possessed of volition. The earlier microscopists regarded them as true animals, 

 and Ehrenberg arranged them under several families (with numerous subdivisions) ; 

 such as the Monadinae or Monads, the Volvocinse, Astasiaca, Bacillaria, and so 

 forth. These organisms are now, however, considered, by the ablest naturalists, 

 to be plants which rank amongst the simplest and lowest forms of vegetation. For 

 this reason they have received the name of Protophytes, from protos, first, and 

 phuton, a plant, terms indicating that they are elementary forms of vegetation. 

 These humble types have also been designated as confervoid algce. 



The simplest form of plant-life is a cell, and among the protophytes there are many 

 in which every single cell is not only capable of living in a state of isolation from 

 the rest, but normally does so ; and thus every cell is to be accounted a distinct in- 

 dividual. There are others again of which masses are made up by the aggregation 

 of contiguous cells, which, though capable of living independently, remain attached to 

 one another by a gelatinous substance which surrounds them. And there are others 

 also, in which a definite adhesion exists between the cells, and in which regular 

 plant-like structures are formed, notwithstanding that every cell is but a repetition 

 of every other, and is capable of living independently if detached. These singular 

 organisms in their development exhibit two marked conditions or states ; one is 

 the still state, the other the motile state. 



In the still state, the cell for a time remains unchanged, but soon the interior 

 matter separates into two parts, and these again subdivide, and the process is 

 repeated again and again, until sixteen and sometimes thirty-two cells are de- 

 veloped from the original cell. When sixteen cells, and sometimes when even a 

 less number are thus produced by self-division, the new cells assume the motile state; 

 for being furnished with one or two threadlike appendages, or cilia, which have 

 the power of producing rhythmical contractions, the cells are thereby impelled 

 through the water in which they live. Erelong they lose their cilia and become 



