145 
THE LOWEST FORMS OF LIFE. 
PART II. 
THE PROTOZOA OR LOWEST ANIMALS.— “ VORTICELLA,” OR 
THE “BELL-FLOWER ANIMALCULE.”— CONCLUSION. 
BY THE EDITOR. 
T HE reader will recollect that we were last occupied in 
investigating the nature of that simple fabric, known 
as a vegetable cell, and that beautiful plant-form, called Voiron 
globator (“ the rolling globe ”), which is a group or assemblage of 
such cells endowed with the power of locomotion. 
If he feels disposed once more to join our little family circle, 
he will have an opportunity of considering with us some objects 
of still greater beauty and interest. As we sat at the tea- 
table a few evenings subsequent to the one to which we referred 
in our last number, our conversation turned upon the subject of 
our former inquiries, and I was asked in what the difference 
between a plant cell and an animal cell consisted. 
My reply was as follows : — 
“ For the most part we find the animal cell enclosed, in the 
same manner as^&e vegetable cell, in a capsule, or f integument/ 
as it is called ; the latter word expressing the same meaning as 
a ‘ skin 1 in the higher animals. Both in its constituent com- 
pounds and in its anatomy, however, the animal differs from the 
plant cell : the latter I have already described ; its ‘ cell-wall ’ 
is a distinct membrane, consisting of a substance called ‘ cellu- 
lose/ which resembles starch in its nature ; and within that, we 
find the cell contents (‘ endochrome ’), believed to be surrounded" 
by an divisible membrane of an albuminous character ; the cell- 
contents consist, as you know, of those green granules that are 
formed within the capsule, and which float about in the more fluid 
sap. Now the animal cell has no such external coat of cellulose, 
as we find in plants, but only the inner albuminous envelope, 
which in the animal cell is the outer protecting coat, or skin, and 
consequently we find it to be much firmer and thicker than in the 
plant ; in fact, you might say that in the animal cell, the inner 
membrane being of a tougher consistency than in the plant, the 
outer one is usually dispensed with. In its place, however, we 
often find what is called by microscopists, a ‘carapace’ — a com- 
paratively hard shell, or armour, of which the true nature is not 
yet clearly defined. 
“ Then again, in the animal cell the internal granules are not 
