actinophrys

I conclude from this experiment, that the actinophrys, which is exceedingly low in the scale of animal life, recognizes food by taste, or by some sense analogous to taste.

The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals James Weir 1881

All this was repeated several times, showing that the _actinophrys_ instinctively knew that those were nutritious grains, that they were contained in this cell, and that, although each time after incepting a grain it went away to some distance, it knew how to find its way back to the cell again which furnished this nutriment.

The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals James Weir 1881

Many species of these little animals, however, are not as intelligent as the Eichorn actinophrys; they very frequently take in inert and useless substances, which, after a time, they get rid of by a process the reverse of that which they use in "swallowing."

The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals James Weir 1881

Presently, however, it returned to the same cell; and although there were now no more starch grains protruding, the _actinophrys_ managed again to extract one from the interior through the crevice.

The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals James Weir 1881

He distinctly asserts that he saw the actinophrys, after it had incepted a starch grain,

The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals James Weir 1881

This actinophrys is not very agile, but when excited by its play, it seems to be an entirely different creature, so lively does it become.

The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals James Weir 1881

On the slide there were several grains of sand, but these the actinophrys passed by without notice.

The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals James Weir 1881

_Spirogyra crassa_; and as the young ciliated monadic germs issued forth one after another from the dehiscent spore-cell, the _actinophrys_ remained by it and caught every one of them, even to the last, when it retired to another part of the field, as if instinctively conscious that there was nothing more to be got at the old place.

The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals James Weir 1881

Whenever the actinophrys touched a starch grain with a pseudopod, the latter was at once retracted, carrying the starch grain with it into the abdominal cavity of the actinophryan; the uric acid crystals were always ignored.

The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals James Weir 1881

_actinophrys_ made its appearance, and creeping round the cell, at last arrived at the crevice, from which it extricated one of the grains of starch mentioned, and then crept off to a good distance.

The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals James Weir 1881