436 EVENINGS AT THE MICEOSCOPE. 



would be made by drops of water in oil. These 

 vacuoles appear to be connected with the digestive 

 function ; for very many of them are not clear, but are 

 occupied with granules more or less opaque, and of 

 exceedingly various dimensions. That these collec- 

 tions of granules are food, you will see by this ex- 

 periment. 



I mingle a little carmine with the water, just 

 enough to impart a visible tinge to it, and close the 

 live-box again. Already you perceive that some of 

 the tiny globules are become turbid and red, and that 

 their opacity and colour are deepening perceptibly. 

 "We see by this that the particles of carmine have been 

 taken into the jelly-like sarcode, and are accumulating 

 in little pellets surrounded by fluid, in these casual 

 hollows of its substance. The process is rendered still 

 more obvious when, as is often the case, some Diato- 

 maoean, with a hard siliceous shell, becomes the food 

 of the Amosba. The apparently helpless jelly spreads 

 itself over the organism, so as soon to envelope it ; the 

 flesh, which having no skin can unite with itself 

 wherever the parts come into contact, closes over the 

 Diatom, which is thus brought into the midst of the 

 sarcode, a vacuole being new-made for its reception. 

 This, t"hen, performs the part of a temporary stomach, 

 the digestible portions of the prey are extracted, and 

 then the insoluble shell of flint is, as it were, gradually 

 squeezed to some part of the exterior, and gradually 

 forced out, the vacuole disappearing with it, or per- 

 haps retaining a minute portion of the fluid, and 

 thus perpetuating itself for a while. This is the earliest 

 condition in which the process of digestion can be 

 i-ecognised. 



