STUDIES AMONGST AMCEBiE. 
221 
pushed through and the projection retracted. All this appeared 
to go on at one place, however, and that was the end remote 
from the onward moving diaphane. On a subsequent occasion, 
when examining this Amoeba in a live box with a quarter-inch 
object-glass, a companion came creeping along, and as they were 
bound to come into collision I watched them with some interest. 
They touched at their diaphane ends, and it was evident that this 
protoplasm was not viscid, nor was it like thick gum or mucus. 
There was no external film or wall, but the diaphane of both 
■creatures gave way a little, and no contraction or irritability was 
noticed. After a while the Amoebae got clear of each other, and 
again came in contact in moving obliquely over the glass. This 
time the endosarc ends of both touched and expanded, and to my 
surprise the endosarc of one Amoeba merged into that of the 
other, and the diaphane also. Was it cannibalism, or was it the 
very acme of love ? The happy united, we can hardly say “ pair,” 
moved out of view gradually, and hid up amongst some shady 
confervse (fig. 19). Towards the middle of August this kind of 
Amoeba became very common, and careful watching showed that 
it was able to assume two phases, so to speak, of existence, one 
of which, as will be shown further on, referred to what the 
creature had been, and the other to what it would inevitably 
come to. With regard to the first phase, it was noticed that a 
small specimen, with the endosarc crowded with dark granules 
and minute spheres, and having a contractile vesicle, evidently 
had taken in minute diatoms, and had received, therefore, some 
pabulum, which it might expend in some physiological energy 
or other. The enlargement of the whole became evident, and 
the narrowing of the endosarc end also ; but changes also oc- 
curred which were very interesting (figs. 21-25). A clear space 
became visible in the midst of the dark mass of granules, and 
it did not disappear, so it was not a contractile vesicle, but what 
is termed a vacuole, or water space. Then the movement of 
the Amoeba became more active, and two blunt prolongations 
of the diaphane were projected, as if this clearish substance had 
suddenly poured out and consolidated. There were two pseudo- 
podia, and their production was synchronous with a movement in 
the endosarc granules, as if these were going to flow out in the 
direction of the pseudopodia. The Amoeba then drew in one 
pseudopodium, and another long one came forth on one side of it ; 
then others followed from the same end of the creature, which 
began to progress vivaciously, and, in fact, to begin to lead the 
life of the active in-taking individuals, abundance of which 
existed in the aquarium. 
About the same time that this change was noticed the dark 
endosarc of the Amoeba began to be more diffused, so that the dia- 
phane was constantly encroached upon by it ; and the opaque mass 
