MICROBES AND PROTISTA. 3 
we have now to consider, may be assigned indifferently 
to one or the other kingdom. 
1 Bory de Saint-Vincent, a naturalist belonging to 
the early part of the century, and after him Heckel, 
have attempted to evade this difficulty by creating 
between the animal and vegetable kingdoms an inter- 
mediate kingdom, which they have named Protista, 
indicating thereby that it includes the first animals 
which in the geological ages appeared on the earth’s 
surface. This kingdom: of Protista includes the fol- 
lowing groups, starting from the simplest and going 
on to those which are more complex :— 
*1. Monera (or Microbes, strictly so called; Schizomycetes, Bac- 
teria, Vibriones, etc.). 
. Amorphous Rhizopoda (or Amcebze). 
. Gregarinide. 
. Flagellata. 
. Catallacta. 
. Infusoria. 
. Acineta. 
. Labyrinthule., 
. Diatomacer. 
*10. Myxomycetes. 
*J1, Fungi. 
12. Thalamophora (Foraminifera or Rhizopoda with a calcareous 
skeleton). 
13. Radiolaria (or Rbizopoda with a silicious skeleton). 
ODI HMor wD 
The groups marked with an asterisk are those 
which we propose to study in this work. For the 
most part, the organisms assigned to them resemble 
plants in their general characters. They are parasites 
which derive their nutriment from other living beings. 
For this reason, many of these organisms are the 
