on our ignorance than our knowledge. Those who ignore the anima- lity of the true Protozoa may choose between the rival systems of Pro- fessors Agassiz and Owen.
[To the courtesy of the author we are indebted for a copy of his paper "On the Distinctions of a Plant and an Animal, and on a Fourth Kingdom of Nature. By John Hogg, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., etc. (From the 'Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal,' 1860.)" In this communication, Mr. Hogg gives a general support to the proposition of Professor Owen, to establish a fourth kingdom of nature for those "primary organic beings" whose systematic position is doubtful, qualifying, however, his assent by the statement, that he is not yet "quite convinced of the immediate necessity of doing so, or that it will ever remain—notwithstanding the progress which we hope will continue to be made in physical science—impossible for man to determine whether a certain minute organism be an animal or a plant;" while, at the same time, he ventures to dispute the propriety of the term Protozoa as a designation for a group of beings whose animality is obviously inadmissible. He, therefore, in its stead suggests "the title of the Primigenal Kingdom,
REGNUM
PRIMIGENUM,
(continens)
PROTOCTISTA,
i. e.,
PROTOPHYTAetPROTOZOA."
Mr. Hogg endeavours still further to illustrate his meaning by the addition of a diagrammatic figure, brilliantly coloured. In this graphic representation, the animal and vegetable kingdoms are respectively de- noted by "two lofty pyramids," one blue, the other yellow, arising from a common base of a subdued green tint, his allegorical chromatic embodiment of the "Regnum Primigenum;" the whole reposing on a more or less undulating substratum of pale brown, which places before the eye, in one bold panoramic projection, the widely extended domain of our great inorganic parent, Earth, the mother of us all.]
