74 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
following the best authorities which have recently treated of tbeS e 
animals, we shall divide them into 
I. Protozoa, including the Infusoria, Foraminifera, and Sf 11 ' 
giadas. 
II. Polypifeba, including the Ilyd, rm, Sertularia, and Pen tifl' 
tularim. 
III. Echinodekmata, or Sea-urchins and Star-fishes. 
Our space will prevent our doing more than presenting to 
reader in succession the most characteristic types of each of th e3e 
groups. 
I. THE PROTOZOA. 
The Protozoares represent animal life reduced to its most shup^ 
expression. They are organized atoms, mere animated and movb 1 * 
points, living sparks. As they are the simplest forms of animal 
as regards their structure, so also they are the smallest. Their mici' 0 ' 
scopic. dimensions hide them from our view. The discovery of ^ 
microscope was a necessary step to our becoming acquainted ^ 
these beings, whose existence was ignored by the ancient world, and o»V 
revealed in the seventeenth century by the discovery of the microscop 0 ' 
When armed with this marvellous instrument, applied to exami” 3 
the various liquid mediums — as when Leuwenhoek, for example, a l r 
plied the magnifying glass to the inspection of stagnant water, 
its infusions of macerated vegetable and animal substances — when 
scrutinized a drop of water borrowed from the ocean, from rivers, oI 
from lakes, he discovered there a new world — a world which will P® 
unveiled in these pages. 
Some modern writers believe that the Protozoa is a mere celh ^ 
organism, that being the principal and end of organization, such 1,3 
we find it in tho cellular vegetable. According to this hypothesis, ^ 
Protozoares would be the cellulars of the animal kingdom, as the Ah? 8 
and Mushrooms are of the vegetable world. This idea is so & 
wrong, that it has been founded upon the empire of pure thetff 
“ In reality,” says Paul Gervais and Van Beneden, “ the animals l 8 [ 
which we extend it very rare! 
tissue of which the bodies of 
destitute of cellular structure, 
jelly, amorphous and diaphanous, and have received from Duja 1 ^ 18 
the name of Sarcoda, or soft-fleshed animals. 
y resemble elementary cellulars.” 
the Protozoa are composed is habitual 
They are formed of a sort of animal 
i 
