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wrote : " I am inclined to regard protoplasm, whether vegetable or 

 animal, as in no instance entirely amorphous or homogeneous, but rather 

 as always presenting some minute molecular structure" ; and Carter, in his 

 paper on the Yovammiiev ( Haliphysema Tumanowiczii), says the protoplasm 

 "has the appearance of being built up by a mesh work of fibrillae, or of a 

 denser substance honey-combed by very small vacuoles, or spaces of a less 

 dense substance." Among the larger members of the various groups of 

 organisms classed as Foraminifera, as high a structural differentiation will 

 possibly be found as is exhibited by any of the naked fresh- water forms of 

 Rhizopoda. Possibly, when measures are taken to overcome the difficulties 

 of observation presented by their opaque and resisting shells, the larger 

 Foraminifera may prove to be as highly organised as the Eadiolaria. This 

 and other forms from the Gulf of Manaar, appear to show a transition 

 from the AmcEba to the higher forms of Foraminifera through Lobosa, 

 Gromia, &c. The position of Haeckel and his following, with regard to 

 their lowly forms, is no longer tenable. 



Their geographical range is almost everywhere, but in the sea they 

 are confined to a zone extending about 55 deg. north and south of 

 the Equator. They consist largely of the glohigerina, and are found at 

 all depths to about 2,400 fathoms. To the geologist they are especially 

 interesting, for existing forms are mainly direct lineal descendants of 

 those of very ancient geological periods. One species of fusilina has 

 formed deposits of enormous thickness in Russia during the carboniferous 

 period. The cretaceous system is crowded with them, and in the 

 tertiary, the weald, the lias, they are even more abundant, e.g., in the 

 nummulitic limestones, called " coinstones," of which the largest Pyramid 

 is built. They occur in the tertiaries of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and 

 are nowhere more abundant than in the calcareous deposits of Paris. 

 It may be said that Paris is built of these forms. They extend from the 

 shores and the depths of the sea to the mountain tops, and even to the 

 foundation of the geological system, the Laurentian, if Eozoon Canadense 

 be accepted as one of them. There are 4,000 recognisable but different 

 forms " which," Hooker says, " a superficial observer can separate by words 

 and a name," and these vary in size from the larger nummulites and 

 orhitolites, which occasionally attain to two inches and even three inches in 

 diameter, to those of microscopic size, and which require the use of high 

 powers for their determination, e.g., some of the globigerina and other 

 forms ; and yet these atoms of creation are not only their own architects 

 and builders, but have, shell upon shell, raised some of the mightiest of the 

 rock masses constituting our mountains. Wherever a limestone, a chalk, 

 or even a clay formation with its accompanying shales are found, these 

 Foraminifera will be there, and often in abixndance. They are the mightiest 

 builders on the earth, although so small that 58,000 were found in one 

 cubic inch of the Calcaires grossiers of the Paris basin, which is about 

 3,000,000,000 in one cubic yard. How many in a mountain chain ? 



The paper was illustrated by drawings and microscopical preparations. 



