the Distinctive Characters in Amoeba. 117 



Mr. Carter, at page 37 of his paper, says, " Now, the worst 

 of theories is, that they take up so much time in discussiou be- 

 fore they bring out fact ; while the best of them is, when mul- 

 tiple, that they prove that the fact is still unknown." Again, 

 at page 38, " Unless we can state in a few words the facts we 

 may wish to establish, it is useless to have recourse to long 

 argumentative theories for this purpose,^^ — the first remark fol- 

 lowing immediately on Mr. Carter's reference to my view regard- 

 ing the reciprocal convertibility of the ectosarc and endosarc — 

 not of " diaphane " and " sarcode," as he, no doubt inadvertently, 

 puts it. 



These remarks may be true in the abstract; but it will, I 

 think, be allowed that, in describing objects visible only under 

 the microscope, theories are unavoidable, inasmuch as the deter- 

 mination of the appearances and offices of each part depends 

 more or less on interpretation. In non-microscopic objects, 

 differences of interpretation as to actual appearances can rarely 

 take place, whatever may be the case as regards deductions 

 based on them. But emanating as these strictures do from an 

 author whose writings are so singularly fertile in speculative phy- 

 siology, they might perhaps advantageously have been avoided, 

 more especially since I do not advance my view touching the 

 reciprocal convertibility of endosarc and ectosarc as a bare spe- 

 culation, but as a theory supported by evidence so strong that 

 I have little doubt it will be very generally accepted. 



Having, for the present, disposed of the question involving a 

 principle of scientific nomenclature, I would request attention 

 to matters of actual observation. And, in order to facilitate 

 reference, it shall be my endeavour to comment on the various 

 subjects, as far as possible, in the order in which they are treated 

 in Mr. Carter's recent paper. 



After stating that he met with Amoeba princeps in April 1863, 

 and his intention of applying to it specially the nomenclature 

 proposed by him in his " Notes on the Organization of the 

 Infusoria of the Island of Bombay'' (1856), Mr. Carter says, 



"The most conspicuous features of A. princeps, when it is large, are its 

 size and the number of granules it contains, in both of whicli characters it 

 much exceeds any other Amoeba with which I am acquainted. Its form, of 

 course subject to Protean changes, is for the most part liraaceous, or once 

 or twice branched; and its pseudopodia, which are almost always lobed and 

 obtuse, proceed from a posterior end which is normally capped with a tuft 

 of villous prolongations; while the distinguishing character of the nucleus 

 .... consists in the nucleolus being so much extended," &c. &c., as to 

 cause " the pellucid halo which is seen round the nucleus of other Amoebce 

 to be absent." 



If the usual practice of stating specific characters in the oi der 

 of their importance can be taken as a criterion of their value. 



