THE LOWEST FORMS OF LIFE. 
147 
“ I intend, this evening, to answer fully some questions that 
you put to me the last time we examined these forms together ; 
but first I will satisfy your curiosity, by saying that the ‘ flowers/ 
which you have just been inspecting are living creatures called 
Vorticellce, from the curious little vortex or whirlpool that they 
create in the water in order to attract their nourishment, 
consisting’ in this instance of the flakes or particles of indigo, 
with which I have been feeding them. Now, where is your 
unbelief?” 
“ Well, I confess that my incredulity got the better of my 
judgment ; so pray pardon me, and proceed.” 
“ In investigating these mysterious living atoms, I must, in the 
first place, say a few words to you concerning those two curious 
forms of life, the lowest of any yet discovered, Amoeba (‘the 
changing animalcule ; ), and Actinophrys Sol (‘ the rayed or 
radiating Sun’’), both of which we inspected on a recent 
occasion. The first of these, Amoeba, puts out temporary 
members (‘pseudopodia/ or false feet, as they are called), 
and by this means moves about in search of food, or rather, I 
should say, until it accidentally comes into contact with some- 
thing that will serve for its nutriment. The mode in which 
these feet are improvised is very curious. Amoeba itself 
consists, practically speaking, of a mass of cell-contents (called 
by naturalists ‘ sarcode ’), without a cell-wall, but there is pro- 
bably at its circumference a thin elastic membrane, which 
becomes extended in the direction in which the animalcule 
means to move. At first the false foot is transparent, but 
presently the granules that float about in its body set up a 
current in the direction of the false member, and, flowing into 
it, cause it to resemble the rest of the body. (Plate vii., 
fig. 1.) 
“ When the Amoeba comes into contact with any substance 
suitable for its nourishment, it enfolds it with these false mem- 
bers, and drawing it into its body through an extemporised 
aperture, it sucks out the nutritious constituents by the 
digestive process, and ejects the indigestible particles by 
another opening in the body ruptured for the occasion. 
And, wonderful to relate, it performs this operation, so indis- 
pensable to the maintenance of its lowly existence, without any 
organs of digestion whatever. The only approach to organiza- 
tion, visible within its body, is a little hollow sphere, that 
appears to serve as a receptacle for the fluid product of the 
digestive process — the blood, as it may be popularly called. 
This sphere contracts and totally disappears from time to time 
(hence it is called the ‘ contractile vesicle/) and then gradually 
dilates again ; and, as microscopists believe it to be a kind of 
circulating apparatus, analogous to the heart, they have called 
