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REVIEWS. 



Uebek den Orqanismus der Pol^thalamien (Foramixifeeen), nebst 

 Bemerkimgen iiber die Rhizopoden in Allgemeinen. Von Max Sig- 

 MUND ScHULTZE, Griefswald. Mit vii. color. Kupperft. (On the Organi- 

 zation of the Polythalamia (Foraminifera), together with Eemarks on 

 the Rhizopoda in general,) Leipzig, 1854 : pp. 68 ; with 7 coloured 

 Plates. 



Naturalists in general, but especially those whose attention 

 is more particularly given to microscopic research, will at 

 length be gratified with the appearance of a satisfactory work 

 upon the Rhizopoda. And the more so as it would appear 

 to be but the precursor of further labours in the same field 

 by the author, who has already proved himself a most able, 

 assiduous and conscientious observer, by his valuable memoir 

 on the Turbellariae, published in the Wurzburg Transactions, 

 and by other papers, in IVIiiller's Archiv. and elsewhere, on 

 different subjects of natural history. 



He intends apparently to devote himself particularly to the 

 study of the Rhizopoda, and has made large collections of 

 recent and fossil forms for this purpose. From this source, 

 therefore, in addition to the promised work on British Fora- 

 minifera to be published by the Ray Society, and upon which 

 Drs. Carpenter and Williamson are, we believe, now at work, 

 we may expect very great additions to our knowledge of this, 

 as yet, obscure and confusing class of creatures ; the study of 

 whose remains, however, is of the utmost importance, par- 

 ticularly in a geological point of view, from their vast range 

 in both time and space throughout nearly all geological for- 

 mations. And their importance appears to be much enhanced 

 by the consideration of the astounding fact recorded by Pro- 

 fessor Bailey, and noticed in the last number of this Journal 

 (p. 89), with respect to deep soundings in the Atlantic, which, 

 it is believed, are the deepest ever submitted to microscopic 

 investigation. The results of this examination go to prove 

 that the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean, from a depth of 

 60 fathoms to that of more than two miles, is literally nothing 

 but a mass of microscopic shells ; which it is shown must 

 have lived at the depth where they are found, and not in the 

 superincumbent water — these shells are almost all those of 

 Foraminifera. 



The present work of Dr. Schultze, which, as we have ob- 



