238 



COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



the family Bovidce, genus Bos, species Taurus ; the Deer 

 is of the family Cervidce, genus Cervus, species Virgini- 

 anus, if the common Deer is meant. 



The diagram on the opposite page roughly represents 

 (for the relations of animals cannot be expressed on a 

 plane surface) the relative positions of the subkingdoms 

 and classes according to affinity and rank.* 



SERIES I.— PROTOZOA. 

 Animals without cellular tissues, and with no true eggs. 

 The body which corresponds to the egg does not develop 

 a blastoderm. 



Subkingdom. — Protozoa. 



This division was proposed by Von Siebold in 1845, to 

 contain that vast cloud of microscopic beings on the verge 

 of the Animal Kingdom which could not be received into 

 the other subkingdoms. It is artificial and provisional. 

 The classes composing it are not founded on a common 

 type, but are distinguished by the absence rather than the 

 presence of positive characters. Many stand parallel to 

 the Protophyta of the Vegetable World, and no definite 

 line can be drawn between them. 



Protozoans agree in being minute, aquatic, and exceed- 

 ingly simple in structure, their bodies consisting mainly 

 or wholly of the contractile, gelatinous matter called pro- 

 toplasm, or sarcode — the first homogeneous substance 

 which has the power of controlling chemical and physical 

 forces. They have no cellular organs or tissues, yet they 

 take and assimilate food, grow, and multiply, which are 



* The student should master the distinctions between the great groups, or 

 classes, before proceeding to a minuter classification. "The essential mat- 

 ter, in the first place," says Huxley, "is to be quite clear about the different 

 classes, and to have a distinct knowledge of all the sharply definable modifi- 

 cations of animal structure which are discernible in the Animal Kingdom." 



