NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 



Correspondence. — Gentlemen, — In the XLVIIth number 

 of your excellent Journal are contained tAvo papers, by Mr. 

 W. M. Ord and Mr. George Busk, both claiming for Mr. 

 George E-ainey priority in the discovery of the formation 

 of some organic calcareous substances by the action of what 

 he has called molecular coalescence, which can be imitated 

 by producing a precipitate of carbonate of lime in the 

 midst of a viscous substance, such as solution of gum arabic 

 or albumen. 



I frankly confess that these researches of Mr. Rainey's were 

 entirely unknown to me when I wrote the memoir of which 

 you have already published in your XLVIth number an'extract 

 in the form of a preliminary note. 



This memoir has been since published, and I have made a 

 point of sending you a copy, which you have probably 

 received. You will consequently be in a position to compare 

 the results of my researches with those previously obtained by 

 Mr. Rainey, and to attribute to each of us what is justly due. 



As soon as I became acquainted with the title of the work 

 published by Mr. Rainey in 1858, I hastened to send to 

 London for a copy. I was, in fact, extremely curious to know 

 how far Mr. Rainey's researches, and the results which he 

 deduced from them, coincided Avith those at which I had 

 quite independently arrived. 



Shall I confess it? While acknowledging that Mr. Rainey 

 has excellently described and figured the calcareous globules 

 to which I have given the name of calcosphaerites, and that 

 he has clearly pointed out that these globules are found in 

 several products of the organism, such as various concretions, 

 the shell of certain crustaceans, the external layer of the shell 

 of lamelli-brancliiata ; still, nevertheless, the reading of his 

 Avork greatly disappointed me, since the praises bestOAved 

 upon it by Messrs. Ord and Busk led me to expect more than 

 is found there. 



I think, then, that I have no very great reason to regret 

 not being acquainted Avith it Avhen I resolved to continue the 

 researches Avhich I had already commenced and published 

 tAventy years before those of Mr. Rainey, and Avhich I may 

 here be permitted to remark remained quite as unknoAvn to 

 him as his researches to me. 



If Mr. Rainey's researches had been previously knoAvn to 

 me I should have been under the necessity of refuting the 



