196 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
the foundation is laid for the production of what has been 
called the “ villous region/' the spot where ‘the anal outlet has 
been supposed to exist ; and where, beyond question, all the 
discharges, whether of the contents of contractile vesicles or 
of refuse food, take place. The occurrence of the phenomena 
which I have just described seems to supply the stimulus 
needed to stir up the young organism into all the manifesta- 
tions of active life which characterize its more matured state. 
Movements of every kind now go on ; it pushes out a pseudo- 
pod here, and only retracts it in order to protrude another 
there. These changes in its outward form cause the granules 
of the endosarc to flow hither and thither, as if afraid of being 
left behind in the slow race. Food is incepted ; what remains 
of it after the meal is being expelled from the villous region. 
Slow locomotion occurs; what Dr. Wallich terms Amoebasis, or 
the mutual interchanges between ectosarc and endosarc 
commence, and all the phenomena which characterize mature 
Amoeban life go on with little interruption, until at length 
the vitality again languishes, ency station occurs once more, 
and all the phases of existence just described are gone through 
anew. 
Dr. Wallich has noticed another mode of reproduction in 
which there were extruded from the body of the parent 
Amoeba, minute individuals which were already perfect as 
regarded all their essential characters. This appears to have 
been a viviparous reproduction. 
But there are other features of Amoeban life to which we 
have not alluded, because we conceive that we possess as yet 
too little information about them to state what they are with 
precision. On the one hand. Amoebae appear to be con- 
vertible into Arcellae, and on the other, into Actinophrys, 
whilst there are phases of plant-life in which Amoeban 
creatures play an important part. Thus, the sporidium of 
(Ethalium gives exit to a ciliated polymorphic cell containing 
vesicle and nucleus, but which loses its cilia, and becomes, for 
a season, a reptant Amoeba. The Difflugia also exhibits some 
equally singular points of contact between the plant and the 
animal ; but, as we have already observed, these points require 
much further elucidation before they can be regarded as 
settled. 
The habitats of these creatures are as varied as their forms. 
Some of the varieties, especially that known as A. Guttula (figs. 
17 and 18) occur almost universally wherever a few dead leaves 
have lain for some time in still water; but the discovery of 
the more remarkable varieties is usually an accidental thing. 
Sometimes they abound amongst Lemnas ; at others amongst 
damp moss or Confervas. Wherever organic substances are 
