50 THE FORAMINIFEEA 



CHAPTER V 



THE IDEAS OF THE EARLY AUTHORS REGARDING THE 



FORAMINIFERA 



It will now be interesting to consider the various 

 ideas of the early writers concerning the nature of 

 Foraminifera ; and thus, by following the gradual 

 progress of thought which eliminates the erroneous, 

 we may more clearly see the. reasons for the con- 

 clusions arrived at up to the present time. 



Very little seems to have been known about the 

 Foraminifera before the time of Linnanis. The dis- 

 coid (coin-shaped) form known as the nummulite, 

 a,nd which largely constitutes some of the Eocene 

 limestones of Egypt and elsewhere, appears to have 

 first attracted attention, presumably on account of 

 its unusually large size. Probably the first writer 

 who noticed them was Strabo, who mentions their 

 resemblance to lentils ; and, since they were found 

 round the bases of the pyramids, they were fabulously 

 supposed to be the pulse-food dropped by the work- 

 men, which afterwards had become petrified. 



Long after this many other observers gave de- 

 scriptions of Nummulites, notably Agricola in 15r58 ; 

 Conrad Gesner in 1565 ; Scheuchzer in 1697-8, who 

 described them as ' Lentes lapidea^ striat.T,' &c. ; 

 Edward Lhuyd in 1699 ; and Brueckmann in 1727, 



