Alcide d'Orhigny. 7 



more tliau a hundred species or varieties from these two locaUties, and 

 my son is occupied drawing them, for I have observed so much in my 

 life that I can hardly see at all, and I am often obliged to borrow 

 his eyes. 



" The great number of shells of these mollusca which are found in 

 our sands, led me to presume that the animal lived on our shores, and 

 set me to look for them ; the difficultv was to discover such small 

 creatures ; their exceeding smallness was a great obstacle ; even my 

 son, in spite of his piercing and trained sight, had not yet discovered 

 anything when one day he brought me some Polyzoa {Folypiers) which 

 he had just gathered on the rocks at Marsilly^ at very low tide ; we 

 placed them in sea-water with the idea of seeing one of the Polyps 

 develop ; my son thought he saw some grains of line sand which had 

 fallen to the bottom of the bowl, move, we put some of this supposed 

 sand in a watch-glass on a mirror, we watched it and we had the 

 extreme satisfaction of seeing swim in it ' Lenticulines, Rotalies, 

 Discorbes, Spirolines,' etc., whose shell one could perfectly well make 

 out tlirough the animal, which is ornamented wqth the most lively 

 colours ; v>'e saw them moving little arms or tentacles, the number of 

 which we could not count, our magnifyer not enlarging sufficiently. 

 We placed a few fronds of the Polyzoa in the watch-glass and observed 

 them carefully ; many of these little animals appeared clinging to the 

 orifices of the chambers {polypidoms) ; were they engaged devouring the 

 Polyps ? this is what I presume. 



" I have no doubt that if we had had a better instrument I should 

 have been able to observe all parts of these little animals, and to draw 

 them, but what is deferred is not relinquished ; they are sufiiciently 

 numerous to encourage the hope that I can find them whenever 1 want 

 them. When you return to La Rochelle I shall ask you to obtain for 

 me the loan of the Microscope of the Cabinet d'Histoire Naturelle ; 

 1 am so accustomed to using this instrument that I shall soon be in a 

 position to send exact drawings of these different kinds of little animals, 

 which, I think, are not yet known. I have many in alcohol, but they 

 contract in it ; I will risk sending some in the case which I am 

 preparing for the Museum, with their drawings. 



" If you see nothing against it, you can announce this to M. de 

 Blainville and tell him I count on sending him this spring a notice of 

 these animals, with the drawings of those which I shall have been able 

 to observe." 



There are many points of great interest about this letter, to 

 some of which we shall refer later. It proves conclusively, how- 

 ever, that the study of the Foraminifero, originated with the elder 

 d'Orbigny, who directed the earlier studies of his son, as the latter 

 fully acknowledges in his " Tableau Methodique." - It throws 

 light also upon the imperfect means of observation at his disposal 



1 Mai-silly is a small village on the Anse de rAiguilloii, which one passes in 

 going from La Rochelle to Esnandes. It has, like Esnandes, a very remarkable 

 iortified church-tower of the Gothic period (restored in 1608). 



■' I., p. 123. 



