XII] OF THE FORAMINIFERA 609 



complication of the individual within its own Ufetime is held to 

 be at least a partial recapitulation of the unknown history of 

 its race and dynasty*. 



We encounter many difficulties when we try to extend such 

 concepts as these to the Foraminifera. We are led for instance 

 to assert, as Ehumbler does, that the increasing complexity of the 

 shell, and of the manner in which one chamber is fitted on another, 

 makes for advantage; and the particular advantage on which 

 Rhumbler rests his argument is strength. Increase of strength, die 

 Festigkeitssteigerung, is according to him the guiding principle in 

 foraminiferal evolution, and marks the historic stages of their 

 development in geologic time. But in days gone by I used to 

 see the beach of a little Connemara bay bestrewn with milhons 

 upon milhons of foraminiferal shells, simple Lagenae, less simple 

 Nodosariae, more complex Rotahae: all drifted by wave and 

 gentle current from their sea-cradle to their sandy grave: all 

 lying bleached and dead : one more delicate than another, but all 

 (or vast multitudes of them) perfect and unbroken. And so I 

 am not inchned to beheve that niceties of form affect the case 

 very much : nor in general that foraminiferal life involves a 

 struggle for existence wherein breakage is a constant danger to 

 be averted, and increased strength an advantage to be ensured f. 



In the course of the same argument Rhumbler remarks that 

 Foraminifera are absent from the coarse sands and gravels J, as 

 Williamson indeed had observed many years ago : so averting, or 



* A difficulty arises in the case oi forms (like Peneroplis) where the young shell 

 appears to be more complex than the old, the first formed portion being closely 

 coiled while the later additions become straight and simple: "die biformen Arten 

 verhalten sich, km:z gesagt, gerade umgekehrt als man nach dem biogenetischen 

 Grundgesetz erwarten sollte," Rhumbler, op. ciL, p. 3.3 etc. 



t "Das Festigkeitaprinzip als Movens der Weiterentwicklung ist zu interessant 

 und fiir die Aufstellung meines Systems zu wichtig um die Frage unerortert zu 

 lassen, warum diese Bevorziigimg der Festigkeit stattgefunden hat. Meiner 

 Ansicht nach lautet die Antwort auf diese Frage einfach, weil die Foraminiferen 

 meistens unter Verhaltnissen leben, die ihre Schalen in hohem Grade der Gefahr 

 des Zerbrechens aussetzen; es muss also eine fortwahrende Auslese des Festeren 

 stattfinden," Rhumbler, op. cit., p. 22. 



J "Die Foraminiferen kiesige oder grobsandige Gebiete des Meeresbodens 

 nicht lieben, u.s.w. ": where the last two words have no particular meaning, save 

 only that (as M. Aurelius says) "of things that use to be, we say commonly that 

 they love to be.'.' 



T. G. 39 



