30 MICROSCOPICAL OBJECTS FOUND 



of the fossil Fusulinse of the limestone of the 

 Volga, as " small madreporites" resembling 

 grains of wheat,* though he was probably unac- 

 quainted with their affinity to what were then 

 generally believed to be Nautili, and thus he 

 forestalled the discoveries of a later age, only by 

 accident. 



M. Dessalines D'Orbigny, especially, adopted 

 the view that the Foraminifera were Nautili, 

 (though he pointed out the Zoophytic character 

 of the animals of the genus Lagena, errone- 

 ously separating them from the Polythalamia,) 

 and produced a general classification of the 

 Cephalopoda, in which he comprehended these 

 minute creatures. He ascribed to them an 

 external animal, bearing the form of a Sepia, 

 the shell itself being considered as an internal 

 bone. M. Dujardin, on the other hand, denied 

 that these animals possessed any organic struc- 

 ture, but considered that they consisted only of 

 an animated slime, capable of extension, encased 

 by an indurated external shell, and, regarding 

 them as Infusoria, associated them with the pseu- 

 dopodian Amoeba. 



* Murchison's Geol. of Russia iu Europe. Vol. i., p. 87. 



