THE LOWER FORMS OF LIFE. 



37 



of a special sense or its equivalent, viz., sight, for these animalcules 

 rarely hit against each other. A human being under the circum- 

 stances would be knocked about and killed ; but the little speck of 

 sarcode, only the 500th or 600th part of an inch in diameter, avoids 

 all collision, and moves about among the crowd in safety. Then we 

 have seen that there is a water circulation which aerates the sarcodal 

 juice a process of digestion, and four or five different modes of 

 reproduction. All this, as far as we at present know, results from 

 powers inherent in this " protoplasm" or sarcode. 



Fig. 39.Lieberkuhnia Wageneri, magnified about 280 diameters (after Clapavede). 



Now, the next example of the Ehizopoda which we come to will 

 show the powers of this sarcode in another light, for we shall 

 actually see it converting a portion of its own body into a net by 

 which it catches its prey. The examples of Amoeba we have noticed 

 belong to the naked division of the group. We will now deal with 

 a transitional group between the naked and testaceous forms, called 

 Eeticularia, from the fact of their being able to produce the net 

 alluded to. One of the most beautiful individuals of this group is 

 that discovered by M. Claparede, and called by him Lieberkilhnia 

 Wageneri, after two great naturalists. I have given a reduced copy 



