H. James- Clarlc on Uie Infusoria Flagellata, 113 



L Mr. Kingsmill has, however, succeeded in collect- 

 ing some remains of plants in the upper layers of the s ^ ' " 

 and it is to be hoped that they will suffice to determir 



The state of the weather prevented me from hunting for the 

 locality where he found them. 



Art. XIX.— lYote on. the Infusoria Flagellata and the Spoivji 

 aiiatae; by Prof. H. James-Clark, Kentucky Univcrsit 

 Lexington, Ky. 



I send this note in hopes that it may be of interest to tlioi 

 readers of this Journal who have followed the recent discussit)i 

 upon spontaneous generation and the doctrine ot' evohition. 

 . eftbrt to clear up the chaos 



is clearly, by rcfusiuu- to n 

 structure, to depress tlieso ereui 

 such a low level in grade, that they shall a]»i)ear but 

 above the lifeless protoplasm which some tliink has \k 

 almost manufactured in the laboratory of the chemist, 

 hypothetically developing " organi^able protoplasm" out 

 ferior types of organic substances," which in the process 

 under " the mutual influences" of its metamorphic form 

 rates still more sensitive organic matter, until it finally 

 ' " ■ y of vital " " ■..:--•-.: :.. 



self able "deductively to bridge the interval" between the 

 so-called "nascent life" and the unmistakable vitalism of the 

 slimy Ehizopod (see Herbert Spencer, Appleton's Journal, Aug. 

 7th 1869, p. 598.) 



My own researches have constantly tended m the opposite 

 direction. In spite of the apparent physical simplicity_ of even 

 the lowest of the Protozoa (Amoeba and the like), their habits 

 and the phenomena attendant upon their mode of locomotion, 

 their determinate prehensile acts, so wonderfully like conscious- 

 ness of an end to be accomplished, and their undeniably spe- 

 cialized digestive functions, all lead to the conclusion, which 

 with me is a fact, that they possess a degree of dilTerentiation 

 in esse as marked as that which we recognize as potential m the 

 earliest stage of the vertebrate embryo. In the former, the 

 organization is present, but not circumscribed into regions ; in 

 the latter it is also present uncircumscribed, but it is to be 

 eventually differentiated. The Sponges, with their supposed 

 slimy, protoplasm-like simplicity, have been m former years 

 the hunting ground of the developmentalists, but of late, that 



