280 Professors King and Rowney's 



Entertaining no doubt that Dr. Carpenter perfectly under- 

 stood the point which he so confidently pronounces " betrays " 

 our " shocking state of ignorance of Foraminiferal structure," 

 we cannot but give expression to our astonishment at the evi- 

 dences he has brought forward by way of justifying himself. 



" Eozoon" is stated to be furnished with chambers that 

 have an upper as well as an under "nummuline" or "tubulated 

 wall" (a roof and a, floor), also an "intermediate skeleton" 

 between them ; added to which it must be understoood that the 

 tubules (aciculai) of the " walls " often pass continuously from 

 one chamber to another to the exclusion of the skeleton *. Not- 

 withstanding the " wonderful variability of the Foraminiferal 

 type," we have invariably held that the presence of an upper 

 and an under "wall" is a pseudopodial impossibility; while it 

 has been " freely " admitted by Dr. Carpenter, but only lately 

 (' Annals,' April, p. 282), that the "fact" is an anomaly^. 

 Determined, however, not to be outdone, he copies a figure, 

 by Carter, representing a vertical section of Orbitoides dis- 

 pansa, in which, it is stated, the " pseudopodial tubulation 

 normally passes," and is circumstanced, as in " Eozoon." But, 

 unfortunately for this statement, neither Orbitoides dispansa 

 nor Nummulites possesses any intermediate skeleton, or an un- 

 der "tubulated wall." The tubulation that is present is upper : 

 it belongs absolutely and essentially to the roof of the cham- 

 bers. We challenge our opponent to point out a single "fact" 

 among the entire group of Foraminifers enabling him to get 

 over this stumbling-block. Even in Calcarina (stated to be 

 " the nearest parallel to Eozoon among recent Foraminifera"), 

 which possesses an intermediate skeleton, a "tubulated wall" 

 is wholly absent from the bottom of the chambers, every one 

 of which rests directly on the skeleton. 



Dr. Carpenter would fain wish it to be understood that we 

 have never seen what he emphatically calls " my true nura- 



the other hand, the organic development of the asbestine structure (in 

 other words prismatic) is supported by certain observations made by Dr. 

 Carpenter, which show that in Operculum arabica the tubules of the 

 chamber-roofs are each in the centre of a prism (see ' Introduction to 

 Foraminifera/ pi. xvii. fig. 8, p. 256). But the subject is one that requires 

 much more attention tban has yet been given to it; and the bearing 

 thereon of Mr. Carter's discovery of some instances of rhombohedral 

 (true) cleavage in fossilized nummulites must not be overlooked. — August 

 12, 1874. 



* See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxi. p. 63 ; Intellectual Observer, 

 vol. x. pp. 294, 295, tinted pi. fig. 1 (upper part left-hand side) ; Popular 

 Science Review, vol. iv. pi. xv. fig. 10. 



t This is the second of the " two anomalies " previously mentioned. 



