The infusorial body in its simplest type of development, as in Amœba, exhibits a structural composition substantially corresponding with that of the lowest organised tissue cell. There is no distinct bounding membrane, or cell-wall, and it is throughout, and apart from the nucleus or endopart, one continuous mass of granular matter, but otherwise homogeneous and undifferentiated protoplasm. Professor Greef, who has made a study of the Amœba, describes motor fibrils in the exoplasm which are active and large in A. terricola. These are readily seen by staining with osmic acid, and, after washing this out with water, immersing in a weak alcoholic solution. In Amœba so prepared and examined with a high power, the whole body will be seen to be surrounded by a distinct double integumentary layer. Highly refractive bodies may also be seen in the interior, connected together by extremely fine filaments. Professor Greef concludes that here we have to do with muscular fibrillæ, which traverse the contractile outer zone in a radial direction and there terminate for the time being. By a similar method, axial filaments can be demonstrated in Heliozoa; these, it is believed, are the true motors of their pseudopodia, and also the axial structures of the Acineta, a marine animal related to ciliate infusoria.
In the Amœba, at one time well known as the Proteus animalcule, [Fig. 325], the marvellous body creeps onward in a flowing manner, occasionally and languidly emitting a single pseudopod first on one side, then on the other. More commonly it puts on a dendroid or palmate form; then again it assumes more or less grotesque shapes in which almost any conceivable image may be imagined. The body, as will be seen in this highly-magnified figure, is full of granules (with the exception of a thin clear outer hyaline zone), and near the centre is a globular or discoid body known as the nucleus, composed of slightly denser material than that which surrounds it. The division of the body into two is preceded by a division of this nucleus. Near the latter is a clear spherical space—the contractile vacuole—which gradually expands, and then rather suddenly collapses and reappears at the same spot, the systole and diastole being slow and continuous. The contractile vacuole contains a clear liquid which is expelled on the collapse of the vacuole. This organ probably serves the double function of respiration and excretion. The Amœba is omnivorous, chiefly a vegetarian, and, therefore, found on the ooze of ponds or on the under surface of the leaves of aquatic plants, especially among Confervæ. It can be readily produced by placing a few fibres of fresh meat in an infusion of hay.
Fig. 325.—Amœba, Proteus animalcule; magnified 600 diameters.—(Warne).
The Gregarinæ consist of a remarkable group of organisms, but these, although unicellular, are, for the most part, confined to the intestinal tract of worms and of the higher animals, and will therefore be described among internal parasites.
Tho fungus-animals, Mycetozoa, have already been referred to in a previous chapter. The best known species, however, is found in tan yards in the form of creeping masses of naked protoplasm, termed Plasmodia. Cakes of protoplasm become segregated from the main mass, and break up into Amœba-like spores, which unite again to form Plasmodia.
Fig. 326.—Rhizopoda lobosa.
A. Difflugia proteiformis; B. Difflugia oblonga; C, D. Arcella acuminata and dentata
The Rhizopoda, or root-footed class of animals, are among the most interesting simple organisms with which the microscope has made us acquainted. In the living state they have the power of protruding pseudopodia from the body, by which they creep about, or cling to plants when in search of food. This group, in fact, includes Amœba, Foraminifera, Sun-animalcules, and Radiolarians. In the first the pseudopodia are simple and lobose; in the second they are slender, confluent and reticulate; while in the two last they are simple, radiating and somewhat stiff, and partake of a calcareous formation.