390 M. A. Schneider on a new Moneron. 



itself out in the middle, until it presents the appearance of 

 two spheres united by a band of sarcode. This band may 

 become attenuated until it is no thicker than an ordinary 

 pseudopodium ; this filament may give way in its turn ; and 

 then we have two individuals instead of one. But most com- 

 monly this is not the course of events, and the two fractions 

 of the division, although each acts independently, continue to 

 hold one another, as it were, by the hand, like two sisters 

 (fig. 2). They not only do not rupture the more or less 

 attenuated thread which is interposed between them, but, as 

 I have often witnessed, it also happens that two of their 

 pseudopodia meet and become fused together, so as to set 

 up a second point of communication parallel to the former. 



Whenever two pseudopodia issuing thus from two different 

 centres meet together, there is an amalgamation of the pseudo- 

 podia. This amalgamation effected, the bond of union be- 

 comes widened by afflux of plasma, and the communication 

 between the two sarcodic territories is widely open, so that 

 the granules can pass from one to the other. This mechanism 

 explains the very varied aspects, changing from day to day, 

 which the same colony presents. 



Starting from a single individual, we have just seen how we 

 get to two, which sometimes separate and sometimes remain 

 connected. Each of the two new individuals, behaving like 

 the first after the lapse of a certain time, we get to four, all 

 united to one another like the links of a chain. I have 

 counted as many as eight thus associated ; and their line ex- 

 tended over a considerable distance, describing a slight curve 



The following day this was no longer the state of affairs. 

 Each member of the colony had pulled upon the common cord ; 

 and a new resultant had been produced from these opposite 

 caprices. My Monera were now grouped as shown in 

 fig. 8 — in a square surmounted by a triangle, the latter 

 surmounted by an arrow. A few pseudopodia stretched from 

 one individual to another, and, soldered together, had sufficed 

 to substitute this aspect for the former one. A little later the 

 same cause had produced a different spectacle ; and, a more 

 lively image of society than any other, this mobile colony was 

 never the same at the close of the day as it had been at the 

 beginning. I shall not stop here to describe the series of 

 these fluctuations. It will be easily understood that the 

 number of members increased by the division of some of the 

 colony ; but certain members also separate to live apart, at 

 least for a time. Evidently we cannot but admit that sepa- 

 rated individuals may resume their relations with a colony, or 



