Some Observations on Amoeba proteus. 193 
XV.—Some Observations on Ameeba proteus. By Lucy A. Carter, 
S.N.D., B.Sc., College of Notre Dame, Dowanhill, Glasgow, 
(With Plate.) 
(Read 16th December 1918. MS. received in final form 8th April 1919.) 
INTRODUCTION. 
Papers by Dr A. A. Scheeffer? on the feeding habits and food reactions 
of ameba? have appeared in the Journal of Experimental Science with the 
following postscript: “After this paper was in manuscript the species 
reference of ‘raptorial’ and ‘granular’ amebas was investigated. The 
granular amebas were found to be of two species: Amaeba* proteus Pallas 
emend. Leidy, and A. discoides Scheffer; the raptorial of one species 
A, debia* Scheffer. See my paper in Sczence, September 1916, for description 
of these species.” The September number of Sczence here alluded to gives 
a short but excellent note on the nuclear differences observed in uninucleate 
forms of the proteus type of amceba. It also recounts the loss of manuscript 
and illustrations in postal transmission. This is a loss greatly to be deplored 
by all workers on A. proteus. 
There has been no intimation of the recovery of the MSS., after nearly 
three years, nor has any further expansion of the September note been 
forthcoming. Are these new specific names to stand without any further 
justification? As an answer to this question I wish to publish some 
observations by way of protest to this would-be addition to the already 
overburdened nomenclature list of A. proteus, together with what seem to 
be good reasons for such a protest. These observations extend over some 
eight years. 
Until Ameba. proteus in one or all of its so-called “species” can be 
raised in “pure” or at all events “persistent” cultures, and a complete 
life-history worked out, either uniting all the “species” or once for all 
separating them one from another by means of their individual life-cycles, 
the work must necessarily be tedious and difficult. As Metcalfe® says 
1 For the use of the Abbé camera, by the aid of which the figures on Plate XIX. were 
drawn, and for a grant to cover the cost of reproducing the drawings, I am indebted to the 
Carnegie Trust. , 
2 Scheffer, Journ. Hap. Zool., vols. xx, and xxi., 1917 ; Scvence, 29th September 1916. 
3 The spelling ameba and Amaeba is Scheeffer’s. 
4 A. dena appears as A. dubia in the Science (1916) article—probably, therefore, a 
misprint—A, dubia being the earlier name. 
° Metcalfe, Journal of Hxp. Zool., vol. ix., 1910. 
