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REVIEWS. 



KOLLIKER'S OUTLINES OF THE LOWEST FORMS 

 OF LIFE.* 



About 25 years ago Professor C. G. Ehrenberg, of Berlin, discovered 

 and described a new group of living forms of animal and plant life, 

 all of microscopical dimensions, which he called the Infusoria. Their 

 external appearance was delineated with tolerable accuracy in a work 

 published by the discoverer in Berlin, and translated into English by 

 Pritchard, and thus the new types were made known to the scientific 

 world, and became the objects of close investigation amongst Conti- 

 nental observers. This was in reality the foundation stone of micro- 

 zoology and micro-phytology, and as the father and pioneer of 

 microscopical science, the fame of Ehrenberg will abide for ever. 



But although the great Prussian naturalist was an indefatigable 

 collector, and delineator of outward forms, he unfortunately possessed 

 but limited anatomical knowledge. The same spirit that induced him 

 to persevere in adding fresh treasures to our microscopical collections 

 was not carried into his investigations of their anatomical and biolo- 

 gical characters, but that spirit is, in a perverted shape, manifested in 

 a dogged adherence to his primitive views. Ehrenberg built up a 

 hasty and superficial system of classification, based on features to a 

 great extent imaginary in his microscopical favourites, which has not 

 borne the test of time, and although it has not interfered with his great 

 fame as a pioneer, has yet detracted somewhat from the value of his 

 discoveries. 



It has been left, then, to others not so able, perhaps, but certainly 

 less prejudiced, to correct Ehrenberg's errors and develop the science 

 of which, as we have said, he was the founder ; and although well 

 known to the students of this branch of science, the names of these 

 observers have not been brought prominently before the reading pub- 

 lic. They are Dujardin, Cohn, Stein, Jules Haime, j 1 Gegenbauer, 

 Claparede, Lachmann, Lieberkiihn, Engelmann, and in quite recent 

 times, Balbiani, of Paris, along with a few more, chiefly Continental 

 observers. By these gentlemen, the true nature of the " Infusoria " has 



* 'Icones Hiatiologicae, oder Atlas der vergleicbenden Gewebelehre," herausge- 

 geben vou A. Kolliker, Professor der Anatomie in Wiirzburg. Erste Abthei- 

 lung. ' Der feinere Bau der Protozoen.' Mit 9 Tafeln und 15 Holzscbnitten. 

 Leipzig, Wilbelm Engelmann. ('Histological Sketches; or, an Atlas of Com- 

 parative Histology,' by A. Kolliker, Professor of Anatomy at Wiirzburg. Part 

 I. ' The Minute Structure of the Protozoa,' with 9 Plates and 15 Woodcuts. 

 4to. Leipzig : Engelmann.) 



t Whose name is unaccountably omitted by the author, although, if we recol- 

 lect rightly, he was one of the first to contribute valuable knowledge on this sub- 

 jtct, in the pages of Kolliker's own journal. 



