32 MICROSCOPICAL OBJECTS FOUND 



with tentacula and a large mouth, yet when con- 

 tracted left scarcely a trace of the openings 

 through which they were protruded from the 

 common polypary. As such I had remembered 

 Pennatula, Lobularia, Alcyonium, and similar 

 forms, in which I had frequently observed that 

 in the skin of the animal existed calcareous par- 

 ticles, which, on the contraction of the skin, so 

 completely closed the opening as to render it no 

 longer perceptible. Renewed examination of the 

 closed surfaces of the cells of Nautilus Orbiculus 

 (Forskal) showed me that in them also dendritic 

 calcareous particles exist, the close approximation 

 of which closes the cell — so that the cover of the 

 cell is in fact the dried up skin of the animal. I 

 now made an experiment in proof by dissolving 

 the small cell in muriatic acid, in order to obtain 

 the animal body in a free state. I obtained as 

 many animalcular bodies as there were cells, con- 

 nected together by band-like processes, and in 

 the interior of many of them were well preserved 

 siliceous Infusoria. I then treated in the same 

 manner Flustra pilosa and F. membranacea of 

 the Baltic, and found in their interior also, silice- 

 ous infusoria."* 



* Phil. Mag. Vol. xviii. p. 446. 



