Mi" L. S. Beale on a new Microscope Object-ylass. 329 



generally takes place by gemmation, and that the size which any 

 individual may attain mainly depends (as in the Vegetable kingdom) 

 upon the number of segments which bud continuously from the ori- 

 ginal stock, instead of detaching themselves to form independent or- 

 ganisms ; so that there is no essential difference, save that of con- 

 tinuity, between the largest mass of Eozoon and an equal mass made 

 up of a multitude of Nummulites. Moreover there is other evidence 

 that very early in the Palaeozoic age the Foraminiferous type attained 

 a development to which we have nothing comparable at any later 

 epoch ; for it has been shown by Mr. J. W. Salter * that the struc- 

 ture of the supposed coral of the Silurian series to which the name 

 Beceptaculites has been given, so closely corresponds with that which 

 I have demonstrated in certain forms of the Orbitolite type \, as 

 to leave no doubt of their intimate relationship, although the disks 

 of Beceptaculites sometimes attain a diameter of 12 inches, whilst 

 that of the largest Orbitolite I have seen does not reach y\jths of an 

 inch. And it is further remarkable in this instance, that the gigantic 

 size attained by Beceptaculites proceeds less from an extraordinary 

 multiplication of segments than from such an enormous development 

 of the individual segments as naturally to suggest grave doubts of 

 the character of this fossil, until the exactness of its structural con- 

 formity to its comparatively minute recent representative had been 

 worked out. 



In a private communication to myself, Dr. Dawson has expressed 

 the belief that Stromatopora and several other reputed corals of the 

 Palaeozoic series will prove in reality to be gigantic Zoophytic Rhi- 

 zopods, like Eozoon and Beceptaculites ; and I have little doubt 

 that further inquiry will justify this anticipation. Should it prove 

 correct, our ideas of the importance of the Rhizopod type in the 

 earlier periods of geological history will undergo a vast extension ; 

 and many questions will arise in regard to its relations to those 

 higher types which it would seem to have anticipated. 



In the present state of our knowledge, however, or rather of our 

 ignorance, I think it better to leave all such questions undiscussed, 

 limiting myself to the special object of this communication — the ap- 

 plication of my former Researches into the Minute Structure of the 

 Foraminifera, to the determination of the nature and affinities of the 

 oldest type of Organic Life yet known to the geologist. 



Jan. 19, 1865. — Sir Henry Holland, Bart., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



" Note on a New Object-glass for the Microscope, of higher 

 magnifying power than any one hitherto made. By Lionel S. 

 Beale, M.B., F.R.S., &c. 



I desire to record the completion of a new objective, with a mag- 

 nifying power double that of the twenty-fifth. This glass is a fiftieth, 

 and magnifies nearly three thousand diameters with the low eye- 

 piece. Messrs. Powell and Lealand, the makers, to whom science 



* Canadian Organic Keinains. Decade i. t Phil. Trans. 1855. 



