PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 171 



dibles ; the tnanahria po-sibly representing- the cheeks^ into which 

 tliey are articulated ; that the rami of tlie incus are )naxill(e ; and 

 that thi' fulcrum repret-ents the cardines soldered togetlier. 



While the author maintains the connexion of Rotifera with 

 Insecta, through these organs in their highest development, he 

 suggests their affinity with Polyzoa, by the same organs at the 

 opposite extremity of the scale, since tlie oval muscular bulbs in 

 Bowerbankia, whicii approacli and recede in their action on food, 

 seem to represent tlie quadriglobular masses ai Lir.mias a.n(\ Rotifer, 

 further degenerated. 



If this affinity be correctly indicated, the interesting fact is appa- 

 rent, that the Polyzoa present the point where tlie two great parallel 

 divisions. Mollusca and Articulata, unite in t^ieir course towards 

 the true Polypi. 



Mr. Gosse's paper is illustrated by ninety-six figures of entire 

 Rotifera, or of the parts under review, all drawn from the life, and, 

 for the most part, with a power of 560 diameters. 



" Researches on the Foraininifera. — Part I. General Introduction, 



and Blonograph of the Genus Orbitolites." Bv William B. 



Caupenter, M.T3., F.R.S., F.G.S , &c. Received May 21, 



l«5o. 

 The group of Foramhifera being one as to the structure and 

 physiology of wdiich our knowledge is confessedly very imperfect, 

 and for the natural classiHcatiGii of which there is consequently no 

 safe ba>is. the author ha>. under aken a careful study of some of its 

 chief typical forms, in order to elucidate (so far as may be possible) 

 their iiistory as living beings, and to determine the value of the 

 characters whit-h they present to the systematist. In the present 

 memoir, he details the structure of one of the lowest of these types, 

 Orbitolitis, with great minuteness; h's object having been, not 

 merely to present the results of his investigations, but also to 

 exhibit tlie method by which they have been attained ; that method 

 essentially con>istin^ in the minute examination and comparison of 

 a larye nuiuber of specimens. 



The Orbitolite has been chiefly known, until recently, through the 

 abundance of its fossil remains ui the Eocene beds of the Paris 

 biisin ; but the anthoi*, having been fortunate enough to obtain an 

 extensive series of recent sjiecimens, chiefly from the coast of 

 Australia, has applied liimself rather to these as his sources of 

 inform ition ; especially as the animals of some of them have been 

 sufficiently well preserved by immersion in spirits, to permit their 

 characters to be well made out. 



As might have been anti(i|)ated from our knowledge of their con- 

 geners, tiiese animals belong to the Rliizopodous type ; the soft body 

 consstiiig (if sarcode, without digestive cavity or organs of any 

 kind ; and being made up of a number of segments, equal and 

 simil.ir to each other, which are arranged in concentric zones round 

 a central nucleus. This body is invested by a calcareous shell, in 

 the substance of which no minute structure can be discerned, but 

 which has the form of the circular disk, marked on the surface by 



