The Monthly Microscopical"] 
Journal, January 1, 1869. J 
Beep-sea Protozoa. 
33 
of the Foraminifera — wliicli are by far the most largely represented 
organisms at the bed of the ocean, in point of number, if not the 
most largely represented on the face of the entire earth, and which 
do not belong to the most, bnt to the least, highly differentiated 
group of the Khizopods — nutrition is not derived from organic com- 
pounds already formed, but from inorganic elements present in the 
medium by which they are surrounded. 
But we must retrace our steps in order to substantiate this view ; 
and the first requirement is to show, not only that the condition as 
to the previous existence of vegetable life is absent, but that the 
condition, under which alone vegetable life itself could be maintained, 
is likewise absent.* 
The vegetable draws its nourishment, according to Dr. Car- 
penter,! " from water, carbonic acid, and ammonia, and is distin- 
guished by its power of liberating oxygen, through the decomposition 
of carbonic acid, under the influence of sunlight^ Now, whether 
we regard the undoubted absence of all vegetable forms, in a living 
state, from the deep-sea bed as consequent on the absence of light,J 
or merely as an attendant condition, it is manifest that the moment 
we have to deal with the lowest type of life in the abysses of the 
ocean, we must seek for some other mode of explaining how nutrition 
is effected. For, a priori, such lowest type cannot be referred 
to the vegetable kingdom ; and if claimed as neutral, the arena of 
discussion may undoubtedly be thrown back a step further, but the 
real difficulty to be overcome remains as great as before. 
These observations, although originally designed to meet the case 
of the known deep-sea Khizopods, are now brought forward with a 
view to show that, even if we admit the existence of the widely- 
pervading "urscMeim" which Professor Huxley describes in the 
last number of the ' Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science/ § 
we should not make any advance towards the solution of the problem 
of primordial life, and embarrass ourselves with a fruitless attempt 
to make its vital functions amenable to the law which can only 
be strictly applied to organisms of a more complex order. The 
grounds on which I seek to establish this view will become appa- 
rent as I proceed. 
* Although these questions have been fully discussed by me, at p. 95 et postea of 
my ' North Atlantic Sea Bed,' published in 1862, it is necessary to revert to them 
in order to show their bearing on the view which has been recently propounded 
regarding the existence of a universally distributed deep-sea protoplasm, to which 
the name of Bathybius has been given by Professor Huxley (' Quarterly Journal 
of Microscopical Science,' October, 1868). 
t Carpenter, on ' The Microscope,' 1856, p. 263. 
X One of the most important inquiries in connection with the question of life at 
great depths is that touching the penetration of the chemical rays of light ; and 
it will doubtless be another of the achievements of Photography to solve it. 
§ " On some Organisms from Great Depths in the North Atlantic," ' Quarterly 
Journal of Microscopical Science,' for October, 1868, p. 210. 
VOL. I. D 
