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On Micro-Geology J an Abstract of a Paper read before 

 the Bristol Microscopical Society. By W. W. 

 Stoddakt. 



Since in the present day the naturalist is engaged with 

 ever-increasing zeal in revealing the relics of an ancient 

 fauna and flora, the slightest contribution is welcome which 

 adds a link to, or gives a review of those organisms which 

 are usually denominated '' fossils/^ 



The utility of the miscroscope is not confined to recent 

 organisms, nor is it a help merely, but actually necessary 

 to the minute examination of many animal and vegetable 

 structures entombed in shales and rocks, that lived and died 

 in ages so remote that we have no adequate conception of 

 their antiquity. 



When we look at that borderland of ancient days, the post- 

 pliocene period, with its beautiful polythalamia, its zoophytes 

 and other microzoic wonders, we fail to compute how long it 

 is since they moved and had their being; nevertheless we 

 know from their structure that they obeyed the same laws 

 and died the same death as creatures of our more modern days. 

 If, then, the pliocene period be so old, what must we say of the 

 mesozoic and palaeozoic ages ? A feeling of reverence may be 

 said to steal over one, when the lineaments and sculpture of 

 the minute brachiopods and protozoa are traced that ushered 

 in creation. 



The telescope has, indeed, in the most wonderful manner 

 revealed the outline, and penetrated the hidden mysteries of 

 worlds so remote, that their very distance is actually inap- 

 preciable by the most acute mind ; and the gigantic instru- 

 ment of Lord Ross has shown that what speculative astro- 

 nomers once thought the nebulous beginnings of other 

 worlds, are, in all probability, complete systems, revolving 

 and moving as our own. 



Splendid, however, as these powers are, yet they are very 

 much surpassed by the revelations of a good achromatic micro- 

 scope, without which we could have no conception of the 

 unbounded world of minute beings surrounding us. When 

 the utility of the microscope is called into question, how 

 often do we hear it summed up, — " That it is to enable us to 

 see minute parts of organisms, their great beauty, and sur- 

 prising motions," &c. But to use the instrument only thus 

 is merely to amuse and gratify one^s curiosity. How few com- 

 paratively knoAv its invaluable aid in scientific research ! Even 



vol. 11. NEW ser. l 



