244 THE MICROSCOPE AND ITS REVELATIONS. 



been designated by Prof. Ehrenberg as Uvella and Syncrypta. Again, 

 it has been noticed by Dr. Hicks 1 that towards the end of the autumn, 

 the bodies formed by the binary subdivision of the single cells of Volvox, 

 instead of forming spherical flagellated * macro-gonidia ' which tend to 

 escape outwards, form clusters of irregular shape, each composed of an 

 indefinite mass of gelatinous substance in which the green cells lie sepa- 

 rately imbedded. These clusters, being without motion, may be termed 

 stato-spores; and it is probable that they constitute one of the forms in 

 which the existence of this organism is prolonged through the winter. 



242. Another phenomenon of a very remarkable nature, namely, the 

 conversion of the contents of an ordinary Vegetable cell into a free mov- 

 ing mass of protoplasm that bears a strong resemblance to the animal 

 Amoeba (Fig. 289), is affirmed by Dr. Hicks 2 to take place place in Vol- 

 vox, under circumstances that leave no reasonable ground for that doubt 

 of its reality which has been raised in regard to the accounts of similar 

 phenomena occurring elsewhere. The endrochrome-mass of one of the 

 ordinary cells increases to nearly double its usual size; but instead of 

 undergoing duplicative subdivision so as to produce a 'macro-goni- 

 dium/ as in Fig. 142, 1), it loses its color and its regularity of form, and 

 becomes an irregular mass of colorless protoplasm, containing a number 

 of brown or reddish-brown granules (a, a), and capable of altering its 

 form by protruding or retracting any portion of its membraneous wall, 

 exactly like a true Amoeba. By this self-moving power, each of these 

 bodies, c, c (of which twenty may sometimes be counted within a single 

 Volvox) glides independently over the inner surface of the sphere among 



its unchanged green cells, 

 bending itself round any 

 one of these with which 

 it may come into contact, 

 precisely after the manner 

 of an Amoeba. After the 

 'amoeboid' has begun to 

 travel, it is always noticed 

 that for every such mov- 

 ing body in the Volvox 

 there is the empty space 

 of a missing cell; and this 

 confirms the belie f 

 founded on observation 

 of the gradational transi- 

 tion from the one condi- 

 tion to the other, and on 



Formation of Amoeboid bodies in Volvox: a, a, ordinary f La /! iffir.nl fir r\f onv-^; 

 cells passing into the amoeboid condition; 6, ordinary macro- tn <3 difficulty Ol Supposing 

 gonidium; c, c, free amceboids. that any SUCh bodies Could 



have entered the sphere 



parasitically from without that the < amoeboid ' is really the product of the 

 metamorphosis of a mass of Vegetable protoplasm. This metamorphosis 

 may take place, according to Dr. Hicks, even after the process of binary 

 subdivision has commenced. What is the subsequent destination of these 

 Amoeboid bodies, has not yet been ascertained. 3 



* "Quart. Journ. of Microsc. Science," N.S., Vol. i. (1861), p. 281. 



of w^^:l%$}?^* ^' (1860) ' p ' "' and " Quart * Journ ' 



8 A similar production of 'amoeboids' has been observed by Mr. Archer in 



