V.—On the Natural Position and Limits of the group Protozoa.
1.—Die Klassen und Ordnungen des Thier-richs, wissenschaftlich dargestellt in wort und Bild. Von Dr. H. G. Bronn, Professor an der Universität Heidelberg. Erster Band, Amorphozoen. Leipzig und Heidelberg, 1859.
2.—Grundzüge der Vergleichenden Anatomie. Von Dr. Carl Gegenbaur, Professor der Anatomie zu Jena. Leipzig, 1859. Erster Abschnitt, Protozoa.
3.—A Manual of the Sub-Kingdom Protozoa, with a general Introduction on the Principles of Zoology. By Joseph Reay Greene, B.A., Professor of Natural History in the Queen's College, Cork. London, 1859.
4.—An Essay on Classification. By Louis Agassiz. London, 1859.
5.—Palæontology; or, a Systematic Summary of Extinct Animals, and their Geological Relations. By Richard Owen, F.R.S., &c, &c. Edinburgh, 1860.
Two authors, of high reputation, having recently expressed themselves, in a somewhat remarkable manner, on the nature of the Protozoa, we have been induced to bring forward the following general comments on the constitution of the group in question.
The Protozoa form one of the primary departments, or sub-kingdoms, into which the animal world is divided; that, in short, to which the lowest forms of animal life belong.
At the time of Cuvier, our knowledge of the humbler animal organisms was not sufficient to enable that naturalist fully to appreciate the importance and extent of this division. The Infusoria, (exclusive of the Rotifers,) and the Sponges, (then placed among the Polypes,) may be said to have constituted, in the Cuvierian arrangement, the germ of the sub-kingdom Protozoa, as it now stands.[1]
An early step towards the attainment of right views on the present subject was made by Milne-Edwards, who, in his modification of the system of Cuvier, sub-divided "Les Zoophytes" of that author into two great sections: Radiaires, and Sarcodaires. In the latter division he included the two classes of Infusoria and Sponges.
The name Sarcodaires had obvious reference to the researches of another French naturalist, Dujardin, who introduced the term "sarcode"[2]
- ↑ The term Infusoria is older than the time of Cuvier, and appears to have been first made use of by Wrisberg, in his "Observationum de Animalculis Infusioriis Satura," 1765, although the German equivalent of the same word had, two years before, been introduced by Ledermüller. The Sponges received their earliest scientific treatment in the works of Aristotle. The words "σπόγγος," "σφόγγος," and "σπόγγια," occur in several of the older Greek authors.
- ↑ See his "Histoire Naturelle des Infusoires," 1841, p. 35, et seq.
