152 THE MICROSCOPICAL NEWS. 
Now that this is provided, it is to be hoped that they will bear in 
mind that something more is required than ‘moral’ support in 
order to ensure a continuation of the series. So many useful 
ventures have failed through microscopists trusting to their neigh- 
bours to provide substantial support, that it is necessary to urge 
that every one who believes in the value of Mr. Cole’s enterprise 
will himself subscribe to it. No more profitable return can, we are 
sure, be found for the small outlay required.” 
LiveRPOoL MicroscopicaL Society.—The third meeting of the 
fifteenth session was held at the Royal Institution on Friday, 
March 2nd. 
Rev. H. H. Higgins exhibited a specimen of Fungia Coral, 
one of the very few corals that possess the power of locomotion. 
He also stated that about seventy slides of various Polyzoa had 
been sent to the Museum, which number he hoped would be, soon 
further increased, the collection affording a good opportunity to 
microscopists for naming their specimens. 
The paper for the evening was read by Mr. J. Michael Williams, 
on ‘The Distribution of Lime in Nature,” illustrated by original 
drawings on glass, and shown by the oxy-hydrogen lantern. 
The paper described the general character of the earth’s crust as 
classified by the geologist into igneous, or fused rocks—sedimentary, 
as the result of igneous formation—and metamorphic, or such as 
have been changed in structure since their deposition, and show- 
ing that limestone among the sedimentary rocks, beginning from 
the earliest periods or systems, is the most important and widely 
distributed. The general appearance and chemical constituents 
of limestone were then referred to in the various groups into which 
the sedimentary rocks have been divided, such as the primary, 
secondary, tertiary, &c., together with their several divisions into the 
Laurentian, Carboniferous, Oolitic, Pliocene, and Eocene systems ; 
each system showing, by microscopical examination of their sec- 
tions, that their structure consisted almost entirely of the remains 
of organic life, and that the whole group was the result of vital 
energy. The rhizopod type of animal life, the group foraminifera, 
was shown to be the greatest participator in this, and that the same 
agencies that formed the chalk of our surface beds is still perform- 
ing similar work on the bed of the ocean (as evinced by frequent 
examination), whether eventually to harden into limestone rocks 
or through the agency of heat to be crystallized into white marble, 
time alone can reveal. 
The different salts of lime were then traced, as in the formation 
of bone, and in the crystallized deposits within the tissues of plants, © 
and in the use of the carbonate principally by marine animals re- 
presented by some of the polyzoa and zoophyta. Mr. Williams 
