60 
CHARTER VL 
THE FORAMINIFERA. 
WHEN we examine sea-weed under a microscope we observe 
many particles, apparently solid, which have a regular and often 
geometrical structure. Beccaria seems to have been the first ob- 
server who gave any attention to these small, and all but invisible, 
crains. He discovered them in the sand of Ravenna. Fora long 
time it was erroneously supposed that they were only to be found 
on the shores of the Adriatic ; they have, however, since been dis- 
covered in England, France, Germany, and in fact upon the shores 
of every sea. Patient researches have been prosecuted by Bianchi, 
Soldani, Walker, Fichtel, and Moll, and especially by Alcide 
d’Orbigny, which have revealed to us a great number of these minute 
bodies. These grains are nothing else than the solid carapace or 
shell of a species of marine animalcules which constitute an entire 
order among the inhabitants of sea water. The beach is so covered 
in certain localities that they form nearly half of its sand. Bianchi 
found 6,000 of these shells in thirty grammes of the sand from the 
Adriatic. D’Orbigny computed that there were 3,840,000 in the 
same quantity of sand from the Antilles. The number contained 
in a cubic yard would exceed all our powers of computation. These 
little shells have a variety of forms. Their observers have noted 
2,000 different organisations, symmetrical or otherwise, but always 
remarkable for their curious, but ever beautiful and elegant forms. 
They are globular, discoid, star-like, wreathed, spiralled, and club- 
like. Some have a wide orifice, others possess a very narrow one. 
They are generally divided into many chambers, which communi- 
cate with each other by means of little holes. They also have pores 
opening to their exterior. To this fact they are indebted for their 
name foraminifera (foramen, a hole), which was bestowed upon them 
by D’Orbigny. Advantage has been taken of their general forms, 
