The story of the bacteria and their relations to health and disease / by T. Mitchell Prudden.

  • Prudden, T. Mitchell (Theophil Mitchell), 1849-1924
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The story of the bacteria and their relations to health and disease / by T. Mitchell Prudden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in the form of longer or shorter arms, and then withdrawing them and sending out others in another place, apparently in the most aimless way; or you may see it rolling itself over and over, or, if I may so say, flow- ing along so that it travels with considerable speed. Perhaps some microscopic vegetable may lie in its way, and it will flow over and enclose this, and, after digesting portions of it, expel the residue from whichever side or sur- face of its body may be most convenient. If, in a quiescent condition, it be touched by an external object, you may see it move in direct response to the irritation. If you are fortu- nate in your observation, you may see a con- striction appear around some part of the lump, which grows gradually deeper until a portion of the mass separates from the rest and crawls off on its own hook as a new and independent amoeba. It has no lungs and yet it breathes; no mouth, still eats; no definite shape, yet grows; no nerves, yet is sensitive; no sex, yet may give birth to endless progeny. Now this amoeba is one of the lowest and simplest of creatures, and is the type of a