200 Simple Forms of Life. 



inside) gets on first, and sticks to the glass slide on which we 

 view itj then comes the rest of the creature, globules and 

 granules, flowing and rolling over each other, until the point 

 of vantage gained by the false foot is reached by the mass. 

 Now another false foot is thrown out, and the same plan 

 repeated. If a suitable morsel of food comes in its way — and 

 it seems very fond of coloured monads, which often give it the 

 appearance of having dined on glittering gems — it opens a 

 cavity, sucks the article in, and the hole closes up, leaving no 

 trace that any solution of continuity has occurred. Though it 

 has neither mouth nor stomach, it exhibits full animal charac- 

 teristics. It lives upon organic matter already prepared, while a 

 typical plant absorbs inorganic matter and organizes it for itself. 

 Though it has no nerves, it must have some sort of sensitive- 

 ness, as it knows when to open a cavity in its flesh and what 

 to swallow in, and we also notice a capacity of adapting itself 

 to the circumstances it meets in its somewhat slow and limited 

 journeys ; thus, if it encounters an obstacle, it does not per- 

 sist in trying to force through it, though it will squeeze 

 through a narrow gap, nor does it merely bound back in a 

 mechanical way. It appears therefore to have volition of a 

 humble sort. Here then we see that a few molecules of a 

 protein substance* connected together under that species of 

 partnership and co-operation which is implied by the term life, 

 are able to do most of the acts essential to the mere existence 

 of higher kinds of animals. 



We shall not now anticipate remarks that will come appro- 

 priately in subsequent papers, but we may observe that matter 

 in the condition of the flesh or sarcode of the amoeba not 

 only reappears in other groups of animals, some of which, 

 like the Foraminifera and Polycystina, form exquisite shells of 

 lime or flint, while others build up the fabric of sponges, the 

 harder portions of which act as supports for the soft lining 

 material ; but we find something like it in the highest kinds 

 of being, and, paradoxical as it may appear, there is reason to 

 suppose that if we ourselves did not lead the lives of amcebge, 

 we should not be able to lead the lives of men. Dr. Bower- 

 bank has the merit of pointing out the persistence of the 

 sarcode system throughout the animal world. He says, ' ' As 

 we descend in the organic scale of life, we find the great 

 systems of animal functions, the osseous, the muscular, the 

 nervous, the sanguineous, all becoming simplified, until at last 

 one or more of them is found entirely wanting. But the 

 sarcodous digestive system appears never to be absent, we find 

 it, from the highest organized, mammals, in the form of the 



* A substance chemically resembling that which composes the tissues of higher 

 animals. 



