The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, October 1879Various
History
The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, October 1879
Various
Arts -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals
Living creatures which are capable of moving or being freely moved
about, present us with similar but more marked differences.
Certain aquatic creatures drift passively about (borne by streams or
currents) with no permanent relation between any fixed portion of their
bodies and the medium which transports them. Such creatures being
equally acted on on all sides by surrounding agencies might be expected
(like the subterranean truffle) to exhibit a spheroidal figure, with
only one kind of surface upon their whole exterior. This is just what we
find to be the case in a variety of more or less minute organisms, such,
_e.g._ as _Myxastrum radians_ and _Magosphæra planula_.[65]
The former of these consists, at one stage of its existence, of a small
globular mass of protoplasm, from the whole periphery of which a
multitude of fine pseudopodia radiate. When about to reproduce, the
creature retracts its pseudopodia, and forms around its exterior a
structureless coat or cyst, an action which takes place frequently in
lowly organisms, and is called their process of _encystment_. The
contents of the cyst then divides into separate bodies, which escape by
the rupture of the cyst. Each of these bodies is enclosed in a silicious
case with an aperture at one end, whence its contained protoplasm
issues, and, having so issued, assumes a spherical shape.
_Magosphæra_ is another small creature which goes through a remarkable
series of changes, the greater number of which exemplify the ball-like
shape of body alike on all sides.
Wherever the surface of the body is covered by pseudopodia, those
processes, inasmuch as they have a power of spontaneous movement, enable
the creatures possessing them slightly to aid or to resist the drifting
action of the water in which they float.
But a living organism may be devoid of any definite shape whatever, as
in _Protamœba_,[66] which consists of a mere particle of protoplasm,
from which irregular-shaped processes of unequal size are irregularly
protruded in every direction, so that the form of the creature may be
said to be quite indeterminate.
The bodies of almost all organisms have, however, more or less definite
forms, which may be all classed under seven morphological categories.
(1). The simplest form of all exemplifies _spherical symmetry_, and is
that which we have seen in the truffle, the radiolarian, the volvox,
_Myxastrum_ and _Magosphæra_. In this spherical form any number of axes
drawn through the creature in any direction are equal.
(2). The next organic form is one in which the body sphere is more or
less elongated at its poles, the latter being equal and similar. In such
an organism we have one axis longer than any one of the others and
central, while from this axis symmetrical radii can be drawn in all
directions. This form may be said to exemplify _equipolar symmetry_, and
such is found in some radiolarians, in some small parasites
(_Gregarinida_),[67] and others.
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