1872.] 



Modes of Origin of Infusoria eye. 



253 



the germs were found to have become more colourless, to have budded and 

 multiplied, and in many cases to have formed elegant mycelial filaments, 

 such as are represented in fig. 4,/,/. 



These latter observations are interesting in many respects. It is remark- 

 able, for instance, that germs of precisely the same appearance should arise 

 after such different methods — by origin and growth in a formative mem- 

 brane in one case, and as the result of the segmentation of a partially en- 

 cysted Amoeba in another case. Then, again, it is extremely interesting to 

 find that these parental Amoebae had, to all appearances, arisen by a process 

 of Archebiosis, although at one stage of their development they were almost 

 indistinguishable from other Amoebae seen in the same infusion, which had 

 resulted immediately from the transformation of flagellated Monads, and 

 mediately as products of a process of segmentation occurring in an em- 

 bryonal area. So that whether we have to do with Fungus-germs or with 

 Amoebse, their forms are occasionally so intimately associated with the 

 matter from which they have been derived, that similarity may ultimately 

 be met with between organisms whose actual modes of origin have been 

 most diverse. 



These amoeboid corpuscles which grew up in the midst of the pellicle 

 were peculiar in many respects. In their very early stages it was quite 

 impossible to say whether they were going to develop into Fungus-germs 

 or into Amcebee ; ultimately, however, they seemed to lean more towards 

 the latter mode of development, although the activity which they displayed 

 in this phase of their existence was extremely slight. Finally, we find them, 

 after encystment, undergoing a process of segmentation, by which they give 

 rise to a colony of brown Fungus-germs, in precisely the same manner as 

 that by which the Protomyxa of Haeckel gives origin to flagellated Monads 

 which subsequently assume the characters and mode of locomotion of 

 Amcebee *. This evidence, in addition to other facts previously known, tends 

 to show that the transition from the Amoeba to the Monad, or the reverse, 

 may be paralleled by a similar interchangeability between the form and 

 mode of growth of an Amoeba and that peculiar to a Fungus ; so that either 

 form may at times result from one and the same living matter when it under- 

 goes internal modifications, with or without being subjected to new condi- 

 tions. This position is still farther strengthened by the facts which I have 

 now to record. 



* Just as Amcebce may arise either by Archebiosis or by segmentation of pre-existing 

 living matter (in embryonal areas), with or without passing through the Monad phase 

 of existence, so may Fungus-spores arise by either of these methods. There is also 

 much evidence to show that Monads may arise directly by a process of Archebiosis. They 

 have been found in sealed flasks in which no pellicle was present, even by M. Pasteur ; 

 and in some of my experiments with closed flasks (the details of which have not yet been 

 published) the Monads that were found must also have had the primary mode of origin. 

 Some of the new-born specks of living matter which were evolved within one of these 

 closed flasks, previously heated to 270°-275° F., seemed to have grown into Fungus- 

 germs, some into minute Amoeba?, and others into active Monads. 



