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7'IIE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



377 



considerable length are soon pushed out, and one of 

 them may be removed for microscopical examination. 

 From the examination of such filaments Dr. Braxton 

 Hicks ascertained that the chlorophyll and protoplasmic 



■ ^ 



contents not unfrequently detached themselves alto- 

 ether from the cell-wall, and collected into one or 

 more ovoid masses of different sizes. These at first 

 possessed all the optical characters of living healthy 

 vegetable protoplasm; but they soon began to chang 

 in colour from green to red or reddish-brown, and then 

 gradually became so colourless that no trace of either 

 red or green remained, except in the form of a few 

 reddish granules i. Whilst these changes were ad- 

 vancing, the several masses gradually began to ^ alter 



e 



Amoebde. 



Hicks 



iopmental d:^ their form, and to protrude and retract processes exactly 



nisms, the vif 



open to to - 

 ; be much ki 



:?en these 



says : — ^ They travelled up and 

 down the interior of the cells, occasionally elongating 

 themselves into a linear form. The movements of 

 their contents presented the same phenomena as those 

 of true Amoeba/ And although all the masses of green 

 endoplast generally passed through these changes simul- 

 taneously, this was not always the case. The number 

 of ama^boid bodies to be found within each cell is 

 dependent upon the number of masses into which the 

 cell-contents originally divides, and also upon the num- 

 ber of segmentations which these may subsequently 

 undergo. Dr. Hicks has seen as many as seven Amcebce 

 moving about within a single cell. He says : — * 



Anxious 



i^ These appearances are represented in PI. iv., loc. cit» 



97 



