and Reproductive Phenomena of the Amoeban Rhizopods. 465 



cavities, the multiplication of the contractile vesicles, their divi- 

 sion, reunion, circulation through the body, and invariable 

 discharge in the midst of a definite and very limited area, 

 under these circumstances ? The answer of those best able to 

 judge will, I hope and believe, be in the affirmative. At the 

 same time I am fully prepared to encounter the opposition to 

 my views regarding the nature and properties of sarcode which 

 is inseparable from preconceived notions handed down from 

 writer to writer, as it were traditionally, and by many persons 

 accepted without question, in defiance of their inexplicable cha- 

 racter * ; for it is but requisite to look attentively into the state- 

 ments that have been put forward on the subject, to discern that 

 they involve agencies and effects not only exceptional as regards 

 the lower forms of animal life, but exceptional as regards the 

 known laws of matter, whether organic or inorganic f. On the 

 other hand, I again submit that the explanation here offered is 

 not a bare hypothesis, the accuracy or fallacy of which there are 

 no means of testing, but one following legitimately on the re- 

 cognition of causes that contravene no established laws, and are 

 reconcilable with the phenomena observed in the particular 

 class of structures it has been my endeavour to describe. 



Note. — It is necessary to state that, whilst the figures ap- 

 pended to the present and previous papers are copies of sketches 

 taken, by the side of the microscope, during actual observations 

 (and I guarantee them to be as accurate as it is possible to make 

 figures that represent living and moving microscopic structures), 

 the facts recorded are the result of examinations occupying 

 from four to seven hours daily, and continued for a period of 

 eight months. I mention this solely for the information of 

 those who are not well versed in tracing out the physiological 

 phenomena of organisms that reveal their workings so capri- 

 ciously as the Rhizopods. But although the first detection of 

 such phenomena could hardly accrue without this labour, their 

 re-detection may be secured much more readily. No expenditure 

 of time, however, devoted to the exploration of a field so rich, 

 and so fitted to assist us in arriving at a better knowledge of 

 the higher forms of life, can be too great. 



Kensington, November 20, 1863. 



* One of the most distinguished of the Continental writers on micro- 

 scopical anatomy (Kolliker) does not hesitate to declare that the method 

 in which Actinophrys incepts and rejects food is " almost a miracle." 



t The most singular feature in the discussion on the properties of 

 sarcode is, that those observers who insist most strongly on a definite and 

 permanent membranous ectosarc in Amcebcs find no difficulty in reconciling 

 its existence with the constant lesions it must of necessity be subject to 

 through the above-mentioned inceptions and rejections 



