10 



LIVING AND LIFELESS MATTER 



organs termed cilia and takes in as food still more minute 

 bacteria with the constant current entering the mouth. If it is 

 transferred to a sterile medium it gets little or no food and the 

 protoplasm begins to waste away. The first effect of this un- 

 compensated waste is the appearance of spaces or vacuoles, 

 and after some time in this skeleton-like condition the organism 



FIG. 2. FIG. 3. 



FIG. 2. Effect of starvation in Paramecium caudatum. Photographs (same 

 magnification) of normal and starved individuals. 



FIG. 3. Effects of starvation in Dileptus gigas. Photographs (same magnifi- 

 cation) of preparations of normal individual and individuals starved ten and 

 twenty -one days respectively. All sister cells. 



dies (Fig. 2). In other cases the effect may be shown by a 

 constantly diminishing size; Fig. 3 represents a normal speci- 

 men of the protozoon Dileptus gigas and a sister organism 

 starved for ten and twenty-one days. 



What happens in these small living things finds a rough anal- 

 ogy in a coal fire. The coal, made up of carbon and inorganic 

 matter is rapidly oxidized and energy in the form of light and 



