306 On the Canal- System in Foraminifera. 



number, which is entitled "Reply to Criticism," does not need 

 any notice at our hands in so far as it affects the facts of the 

 letter " On Priority in the Discovery of the Canal-System in 

 Foraminifera," which you were good enough to publish in 

 July. Mr. Carter, however, accuses us, by implication, of 

 swppressio veri] he also practically charges us with ignorance 

 in not finding out his misquoted reference, and he reiterates 

 his claim of prior discovery, inconsistent with his own early 

 recognition of the results arrived at by Williamson and Car- 

 penter. 



Mr. Carter had stated (we regret to have to copy the para- 

 graph again), "Before Schultze's or Carpenter's books were 

 published, I had described and illustrated, in the 'Annals/ the 

 canal-system, c nummuline ' tabulation, and general structure 

 of the Foraminifera, both in the recent Operculina and in the 

 fossilized Nummulite ( l Annals,' 1852, vol. x. p. 161, pi. iv.). 

 Even Schultze in his book, as well as I can remember (for I 

 have not the work by me to refer to), gives me the credit of 

 having discovered the ' canal-system,' which at least proves 

 the priority of my publications ; and since then up to the present 

 time I have more or less occupied myself with the structure of 

 the Foraminifera, as my papers in the ' Annals ' will show." 



Our letter was little more than a statement as to the course 

 of discovery in respect to Foraminiferal structure up to the 

 time of Mr. Carter's paper on Operculina arabica in 1852. 

 It was written in the most friendly tone, and was intended 

 only to counteract the serious injustice of the paragraph in 

 question to at least two previous observers. We gave a brief 

 summary of the contents of four papers earlier than Mr. Carter's, 

 and left the readers of the ' Annals ' to draw their conclusions 

 from them. To this, the only essential portion of the letter, 

 Mr. Carter replies that, besides Prof. Williamson's and Dr. 

 Carpenter's memoirs, we ought to have mentioned that by 

 MM. Joly and Leymerie. If these observers really understood 

 the " canal-system," to them also his paragraph was unjust. 

 But for the desire not to impart controversial matter, we might 

 have said a good deal about MM. Joly and Leymerie's results. 



Mr. Carter in quoting Max Schultze refers pointedly, though 

 from memory, to his " book." The only " book," so far as we 

 know, that the learned German Professor ever published on the 

 Foraminifera is the beautiful folio " Ueber den Organismus der 

 Polythalamien." We therefore searched this work for the 

 passage alluded to, and quoted the only sentence we could find 

 bearing upon the question. In the paper on Polytrema, now 

 referred to by Mr. Carter, Prof. Schultze certainly expresses 

 his own opinion that Mr. Carter first described the system of 

 ramified tubes in Foraminifera. 



