864 MR. J. E. S. MOORE ON THE STRUCTURAIi 



On the Structural Differentiation of the Protozoa as seen in 

 Microscopic Sections. By J. E. S. Mooee, A.E.C.S. (Erom 

 the Huxley Eesearch Laboratory.) (Communicated by Prof. 

 a. B. Howes, P.L.S.) 



[Bead 2nd February, 1893.] 

 (Plate XXVII.) 



Our knowledge of the more minute structure of the Protozoa 

 has considerably increased of late, this increase being no doubt 

 due, in a great measure, to the introduction of the new apo- 

 chromatic lenses as well as to the modern methods of fixation 

 and differential staining. It is by these means that the proto- 

 plasmic contents of Amceia, for example, have been resolved 

 into something more than a structureless hyaloplasm and its sus- 

 pended granules ; and we have grown conscious of an immensely 

 complicated vacuolation stretching from the large ingestion-spaces 

 on the one hand to the ultimate " Schaumplasm " [the hetero- 

 geneous foam structure of Biitschli] on the other. And, again, it 

 is in the internal tensional activities of such structures that 

 this author seeks for a possible mechanical substratum of some 

 of the simpler vital phenomena. More recently, and apart from 

 all hypotheses, F. Schiitt *, by means of optical sections through 

 a number of Feridinia, has not ouly demonstrated the existence 

 of remarkable spaces (" Saftkammern "), but a veritable excre- 

 tory system in connexion with them ; while Prof. Greeff t, by 

 substituting actual sections of Amoebce for the optical sections of 

 Feridinia, has brought to light a radial structure extending 

 through the ectosarc and intimately connected with the contrac- 

 tility of the animal as a whole. In fact, if his observations can 

 be confirmed, they mark the starting-point of a new era in our 

 knowledge of the minute Protozoan anatomy. 



It is with an extension of such an analysis, by sections of the 

 Ultimate Protozoan structure, that the following short contribution 

 is concerned. Undoubtedly the material at my disposal will 

 appear very limited ; but the character of the technique became 

 BO forbidding in the case of forms not attainable in vast numbers, 



* ' Sitzungsbericlite der koniglicli preussisehen Akademie der Wissenschaften 

 zu Berlin,' 1892, xxiv. pp. 377-383. 



t Dr. Greeff, " Ueber den Organismus der Amoben," SitzungsbericMe der 

 Gesellsehaft zur Bef orderung der gesammten Naturwissensohaften zu Marburg, 

 1890, pp. 21-25. 



