Sarcode

“ These, the films of sarcode probably entangle, surround, and drag into the chambers of the shell, digesting their softer parts in temporary vacuoles, and then casting out the more solid remains just as the Amœba does.” By means of these “pseudopodia” the animal also drags itself along over a fixed surface. Such is the Foraminifer of our own seas, and such too the atomies of the Atlantic basin. ”

“ During this circulation of the fluid through the living mass, the sarcode obtains its nourishment, and the skeleton its growth by a sort of absorption, or what is known to the physiologist as endosmotic action of the cells. We have then mentioned above three clearly specialized functions, as represented respectively by the inhalant pores, the exhalant oscula, and the uniciliated cells. And it is certainly a matter of prime importance that each cell should have this single lash. ”

“ The form of most of the little masses was irregular, roundish, or provided with obtuse processes resembling those of an Amœba; others took the form of irregular reticulations of sarcode, like those of the Myxomycetæ. ”

“ The animal part of the rhizopods is a gelatinous body called sarcode, a bit of scarcely organized protoplasm. Food is taken in through the outer wall, and is made into small pellets, which are surrounded by a digestive fluid in extemporized stomachs. Minute granules move about the interior, perhaps the substitute for a circulating fluid; and the outer wall can be moulded into the long processes called pseudopodia, used for locomotion and prehension. When these rhizopods secrete stony matter for a covering, the interior is the same structureless mass ”

“ The Matrix, or the maternal tissue of the external protoplasm, enveloping immediately the capsule-membrane as a thin continuous layer of extracapsular sarcode (ectosarc) .
3. The Pseudopodia, or the very numerous thread-like filaments of protoplasm, which radiate from the matrix; whilst their inner part is enclosed in the calymma, their outer part floats freely in the sea-water. Besides these three constant and essential elements, the extracapsulum contains very commonly (but not constantly) some other enclosed structures, viz.:—
4. ”

“ But you, I suppose, speak the language of the Pumpkinheads?"
"Exactly so, your Majesty" replied the other, bowing; "so it will be impossible for us to understand one another."
"That is unfortunate, certainly," said the Scarecrow, thoughtfully. "We must have an interpreter."
"What is an interpreter?" asked Jack.
"A person who understands both my language and your own. When I say anything, the interpreter can tell you what I mean; and when you say anything the interpreter can tell me what you mean. For the interpreter can speak both languages as well as understand them." ”

“ Now what letter of the Alphabet does a group of five a’s stand for?—A, does it not? So the first letter in our secret is A. Now place the Classifier over the rest of the letters of the poem and [Pg 53] see to what form they belong, just as we have done for you in the first group. If you do your work carefully you will find the hidden secret.
If we can hide one word in “Biliteral Cipher” and a sentence in a short poem, do you not see how a whole story could be hidden so carefully within a book that it might not be discovered for many, many years? ”

“ The Fifth Assistant was sitting with his feet on his desk, a cigar in his mouth, his gaze fixed on vacancy.
“Damn your old cipher, Harleston!” he remarked, coming out of his abstraction. “It’s bothered me more than anything I’ve tackled for years. I can’t make head nor tail of it. Its very simplicity—or seeming simplicity—is what’s tantalizing. It’s in French. Of so much I feel sure, though I’ve little more than intuition to back it. As you know, this Vigenèrie, or Blocked-Out Square, cipher is particularly difficult. I’ve tried every word and phrase that’s ever been used or discovered. ”

“ If, therefore, we can devise any means of expressing, in conjunction with each symbol, a certain number of repeats up to five; and if we can, for practical purposes, reduce our alphabet to twenty-two letters, we can at once reduce the biliteral cipher to three instead of five symbols.
The latter is easy enough, for certain letters are so infrequently used that they may well be grouped in twos. Take “X” and “Z” for instance. In modern printing in English where the letter “e” is employed seventy times, “x” is only used three times, and “z” twice. ”

“ How any man could have solved the mystery of this cypher is astonishing.
Now let us recommend a far simpler system, and one which is very difficult of detection. It consists of a combination of numbers and letters. Both parties must be agreed on an arrangement such as that in the second line below, for on it all depends.
Now in turning a sentence such as “The army must retire” into cypher, you count the letters which make the sentence, and find that t is the first, h the second, f the third, a the fourth, r the fifth, and so on. Then look at the table. t is the first letter; 4 answers to 1 ”

“ Let us then imagine the word iiiiiiiiii presenting itself in a cryptograph to an individual without the proper key-phrase; or, if this be a supposition somewhat too perplexing, let us suppose it occurring to the person for whom the cipher is designed, and who has the key-phrase. What is he to do with such a word as iiiiiiiiii? In any of the ordinary books upon Algebra will be found a very concise formula (we have not the necessary type for its insertion here) for ascertaining the number of arrangements in which m letters may be placed, taken n at a time. ”

“ Scarpa, Antonio, Italian anatomist, professor at Pavia (1747-1832) .
Scarron, Paul, a French humourist, writer of the burlesque, born, of good parentage, in Paris; entered the Church, and was for some years somewhat lax-living abbé of Mans, but stricken with incurable disease settled in Paris, and supported himself by writing; is chiefly remembered for his “Virgile Travesti” and “Le Roman Comique,” which “gave the impulse out of which sprang the masterpieces of Le Sage, Defoe, Fielding, and Smollett” ”

“ LESSON XV
The phrase “Biliteral Cipher” is made to contain the hidden word “key” by the use of a capital letter for the a form, and a small letter for the b form. The borders to the lines contain the cipher word “letter,” the blue sticks being the a form, the red ones the b form. The reading proceeds from left to right in each line, beginning with the line at the top. The children may be directed to cut out any set of letters of appropriate size to form any desired phrase, using capital and small letters on the same principle as in the example. ”

“ One single letter gave it to me.”
“How was that?”
“If you will look at the telegram,” said Ben, spreading it out before me, “you will notice that in one instance only is a single letter seen standing by itself. That is the letter ‘b,’ which I concluded must stand for the article ‘a,’ for I know of no other, unless it is ‘I.’ Now, the letter ‘b’ is the second one in the alphabet, and stands next in order to ‘a.’ If this system is followed throughout the cipher, we have only to take, instead of the letters as written, the next in order as they occur in the alphabet. ”

“ For the sake of simplicity it may be allowed us to ignore some distinctions rightly made by phoneticians. Thus the long initial vowel of alias is not really the same as the long initial vowel of area, but the two will be treated as identical. It will thus be possible to write of only three kinds of vowels, long, short, and obscure.
The letter or symbol a stood for two long sounds, heard in the first syllables of alias and of larva, for the short sound heard in the first syllable of stamina, and for the obscure sound heard in the last syllable of each of these last two words in English. ”

“ E predominates so remarkably that an individual sentence of any length is rarely seen in which it is not the prevailing character.
“Here, then, we have, in the very beginning, the groundwork for something more than a mere guess. The general use which may be made of the table is obvious—but, in this particular cipher, we shall only very partially require its aid. As our predominant character is 8, we will commence by assuming it as the e of the natural alphabet. ”

“ Markham, and had crossed his extended legs and clasped his long fingers, leaving only his thumbs at liberty to move, screwed up his lips as tight as a miser’s purse, and, as if economical of words, uttered through the nose a sound which no vowels or consonants in any European alphabet are competent to express, either severally or conjointly. As it oftentimes occurs that words are used when no meaning is conveyed, so does it on the other hand sometimes happen that much meaning is conveyed when no words are uttered. ”

“ Then, having five root numbers, ten or a dozen modifiers, the number of the page and the number of words on it, also the number of words in italics or connected by hyphens, you have studied addition and subtraction to little purpose if you can not so combine these various numbers that they shall furnish you, at last, with the number that you need to identify the particular word you have chosen. It is hard work. No wonder Mr. Donnelly covered, with figuring, a bundle of paper that a man can scarcely lift. The present writer consumed quires in a simple application of the cipher key to Hamlet. ”

“ Since each letter of the normal alphabet is the key to one of the Vigenère cipher alphabets, the encipherer, wishing to make use of several different cipher alphabets, is able to remember their sequence by means of a key-word, in which each letter will point out one particular cipher alphabet. ”

“ The problem which I now put before myself was to make dots in a printed book in which I could repeat accurately and simply the setting forth of the biliteral cipher. I had, of course, a clue or guiding principle in the combinations of numbers with the symbols of “a” and “b” as representing the Alphabetical symbols. Thus it was easy to arrange that “a” should be represented by a letter untouched and “b” by one with a mark. This mark might be made at any point of the letter. ”

“ Judge Jarriquez herein alluded to a story by the great American romancer, which is a masterpiece. Who has not read the “Gold Bug?” In this novel a cryptogram, composed of ciphers, letters, algebraic signs, asterisks, full-stops, and commas, is submitted to a truly mathematical analysis, and is deciphered under extraordinary conditions, which the admirers of that strange genius can never forget. On the reading of the American document depended only a treasure, while on that of this one depended a man’s life. ”

“ If this plan be adopted, any letter of a word can be translated into numbers which are easily distinguishable, and whose sequence can be seemingly altered, so as to baffle inquisitive eyes, by the addition of any other numbers placed anywhere throughout the cipher. All of these added numbers can easily be discovered and eliminated by the scribe who undertakes the work of decipheration, by means of the additions of odd or even numbers, or by reference to his key. The whole cipher is so rationally exact that any one who knows the principle can make a key in a few minutes. ”

“ Thus, if he sees a m at the beginning, he concludes that, by turning his circles so as to put these characters in conjunction, he will arrive at the alphabet employed.
At a cursory glance, these various modes of constructing a cipher seem to have about them an air of inscrutable secrecy. It appears almost an impossibility to unriddle what has been put together by so complex a method. And to some persons the difficulty might be great; but to others--to those skilled in deciphering--such enigmas are very simple indeed. ”

“ There are no two of these symbols which clash with one another so as to cause confusion.
To fit the alphabet to this cipher the simplest plan is to reserve one symbol (the first—“0”) to represent the repetition of a foregoing letter. This would not only enlarge possibilities of writing, but would help to baffle inquiry. There is a distinct purpose in choosing “0” as the symbol of repetition for it can best be spared; it would invite curiosity to begin a number cipher with “0,” were it in use in any combination of figures representing a letter. ”

“ If the student will give his careful attention to reasons, as well as to methods, he will be able to adjust these methods to alphabets of other lengths, as, for instance, the very common 25-letter alphabet met with in foreign texts. The first alphabet, of course, duplicates the plaintext alphabet regardless of what alphabet-length is being considered, and thus, whenever a Type III slide has been used, we are always in full possession of one of the cipher alphabets. ”

“ Any man who has followed the sea for half his life, as I have, never fails to assure himself on the points of the compass. The first fair day in which the sun can be seen to rise and set will give him the data from which he can take his bearings in the absence of a compass.
This strange light that I saw far away to the southward took the form of an immense red ball, far up in the clouds. I did not know then, though I learned afterward, that this is what is known among the Sargassons as “The Sacred Fire.” ”

“ I do not well understand how a man is reproached by being called zed, nor how Z is an unnecessary letter. Scarron compares his deformity to the shape of Z, and it may be a proper word of insult to a crook-backed man; but why should Gonerill's steward be crooked, unless the allusion be to his bending or cringing posture in the presence of his superiors. Perhaps it was written, thou whoreson C (for cuckold) thou unnecessary letter. C is a letter unnecessary in our alphabet, one of its two sounds being represented by S, and one by K. But all the copies concur in the common reading. ”