88 THE OCEAN WORLD. 
tentacle. Beneath this is a layer of granules, or rather a gelatinous 
membrane, through the substance of which minute granules are scat- 
tered without any very definite arrangement; from hence arises a 
network of very delicate fibrils, whose meshes are not more than the 
three-hundredth part of an inch in diameter, which gradually pass 
internally—the reticulation becoming more and more open—into 
coarser fibres, taking a convergent direction towards the stomach 
and nucleus. All these fibres and fibrils are covered with minute 
granules, which are usually larger towards the centre.” 
Prof. Huxley is inclined to think, from all he has observed, that 
the animal has a definite alimentary cavity, and that this cavity has 
an excretory aperture distinct from the mouth. These facts, together 
with the existence of a dental armature, greatly increase its affinity to 
such forms as Colpoda and Nassula among the Infusoria, while the 
general absence of cilia over the body, and the wide differences 
in detail, would require the constitution of at least a distinct family 
for this singular creature. 
Surriray discovered the /Vocti/uca while investigating the cause of 
the phosphorescence of sea water at Havre, where it was abundant 
in the basins, sometimes in such abundance as to form a scum on 
the surface of the water of considerable thickness. ‘“ This singular 
little creature,” says M. Frédol, “offers here and there in its interior 
certain granules, probably germs, and also luminous points, which 
appear and disappear with great rapidity, the least agitation bringing 
out their lustre.” The Wocti/uca are so abundant in the Mediterranean 
and on many parts of our English coasts, that in a cubic foot of sea 
water, which has been rendered phosphorescent by their presence, it is 
calculated that there may exist about 25,000. We now come to the 
INFUSORIA. 
Of this very interesting group a large proportion are marine, and 
very many numerous varieties of them are found in the British seas. 
In their minuteness and variety they almost baffle the attempts of 
naturalists to classify them. 
We find both fresh and salt water inhabited by legions of these 
active, ever-moving beings, of dimensions so small as to be inappreci- 
able to the naked eye ; these minute creatures are disseminated by 
millions and thousands of millions in the great deep, and all know- 
ledge of them would have escaped us, as they escaped the knowledge 
of former scientific men, but for the discovery of the microscope, the 
sixth sense of man, as it has been happily called by the poet and 
