54 THE HISTORY OF CREATION, 



foi'm of naked cells with a kernel, which cannot be distin- 

 guished at all from the naked eggs of many animals (for 

 example, those of the Siphonophoroiis Medusae). (Compare 

 the figure of a naked egg of a bladder-wrack in Chapter 

 xvii. p. 90). In reality every naked simple cell, whether 

 it proceeds from an animal or vegetable body, cannot 

 be distinguished from an independent Ajnoeba. For an 

 Amoeba is nothing but a simple primary cell, a naked 

 little lump of cell-matter, or plasma, containing a kernel. 

 The contractility of this plasma, which the free Amceba 

 shows in stretching out and drawing in its changing pro- 

 cesses, is a general vital property of the organic plasma 

 of all animal as well as of all vegetable plastids. When a 

 freely moving Amoeba, which perpetually changes its form, 

 passes into a state of rest, it draws itself together into the 

 form of a globule, and surrounds itself with a secreted mem- 

 brane. It can then be as little distinguished from an animal 

 egg as from a simple globular vegetable cell. (Fig. 10 ^). 



Fig. 10. — Amoeba sphasrococcus, greatly Taagnified. A fresh-water Amoeba 

 without a contractile vacuole. A. The enclosed Amoeba in the state 

 of a globular lump of plasma (c) enclosing a kernel and a kernel-speck (a). 

 The simple cell is surrounded by a oyst, or cell-membrane (d). B. The 

 free Amoeba, which has burst and left the cyst, or cell -membrane. C. It 

 begins to divide by its kernel parting into two kernels, and the cell- 

 substance between the two contracting. D. The division is completed, and 

 the cell-substance has entirely separated into two bodies. (Da and DV). 



