298 CARPENTER^ ON FORAMINIFERA. 



members of the Ray Society and the readers, we leave Dr. 

 Carpenter himself to set forth : 



" When, some years since, I undertook to prepare for the Ray Society 

 an outline view of the structure, physiology, and systematic arrangement 

 of the Foraminifera generally, I had no idea of contributing anything 

 else than an introduction to my friend Prof W. C. Williamson's 'Recent 

 Foraminifera of Great Britain.' With the progress of my own researches, 

 however, I came more and more strongly to feel how unsatisfactory are 

 the results of the method pursued by M. D'Orbigny and by those who 

 have followed his lead, both as regards the multiplication of species, the 

 distinction of genera, and the grouping of these genera \x\\.o families and 

 orders. I found, moreover, that notwithstanding the dissimilarity be- 

 tween the lines of inquiry pursued by myself on the one hand and by my 

 friends Messrs. Parker and Rupert Jones on the other, they led to con- 

 clusions most singularly accordant. My own studies had been restricted 

 to a limited range of types (for the most part collected by Mr. Jukes, on 

 the Australian coast and by Mr. Cuming in the Philippine Seas), which 

 included, however, all the most complex and highly developed forms 

 of recent Foraminifera; and I had specially devoted myself to the eluci- 

 dation of their structure and physiology, and to the careful comparison 

 of their numerous varietal forms. Theirs, on the other hand, had in- 

 volved the comparison of the zoological characters of vast numbers of 

 representatives of nearly all the generic types of the group, fossil as well 

 as recent, brought together from various parts of the world, from various 

 depths of the ocean, and from various geological formations ; but had not 

 been prosecuted with the same minuteness in regard to the details of in- 

 ternal structure or to physiological relations. Yet we had all been alike 

 brought to recognise — (1) the extreme latitude of the range of variation 

 in this group, which breaks down in almost every instance the boundaries 

 which it has been attempted to erect between species ; (2) the necessity 

 of a like abolition of the divisions between many reputed genera which 

 have been erected on an equally insecure basis ; (3) the completely un- 

 natural character of any system which makes a fundamental division 

 between the monothalamous and the polythalamous types, and which 

 adopts plan of growth (that is, the geometrical arrangement of aggrega- 

 tions of successive segments) as the basis of the subdivision of the Poly- 

 thalamia into orders ; and (4) the fundamental importance, in the deter- 

 mination of the true affinities of the several generic types, of all that 

 relates to the physiological condition of the animal, especially the texture 

 of the shell, and the peculiarities of conformation which characterise the 

 individual segments." 



The consequence has been that Messrs. Parker and Rupert 

 Jones have assisted Dr. Carpenter in the present work, and 

 the volume appears as the result of their joint labours. The 

 work however in its present form is not merely an introduc- 

 tion to the study of the general structure and functions of the 

 roraminifera, but is an analysis of all that is at present known 

 on the subject. Dr. Carpenter commences with an historical 

 summary of the subject, in which he not only goes over the 

 ground trodden by Professor Williamson, but greatly extends 

 and simplifies this part of the Avhole subject. He divides our 



