the Nomenclature of the Foraminifera. 217 



only by marks of the most accurate research and indefatigable 

 industry, but by the still higher merit of far-reaching philo- 

 sophical views and a just appreciation of the important bear- 

 ings and applications of the facts which he has brought to 

 light." 



With this eulogium we fully coincide, and feel certain that 

 the better Ehren berg's Avork is understood, the more will his 

 beautiful and lasting illustrations, and his painstaking synop- 

 tical registers, advance the progress of biology in its relation 

 to both tlie present and the past. In removing some obscurity 

 from the highly valuable groups of Foraminifera of which he 

 has treated, we shall be of use to naturalists and geologists, 

 enabling them to put several extensive faunae and local groups 

 into close critical relation with each other and with such as 

 have been observed by others. Furthei", we are sure that 

 Ehrenberg himself, thinking over the improved biological 

 systems of later naturalists, and open to conviction on good 

 arguments, would freshly recognize the force of his own words 

 respecting the importance of rhizopodal studies and their 

 slowly progressive nature *, and be pleased to find, also, his 

 own researches not only serving as a broad basis for the study 

 in general and as steps to higher knowledge, but still more 

 freely trodden in the upward ascent when made somewhat 

 clearer and firmer for the student. 



In 1847 Prof. W. C. Williamsonf, F.E.S., had already 

 taken in hand a survey of Dr. Ehrenberg's microscopical 

 work in relation to the origin of limestones and some other 

 rocks. Not merely as a reading critic, but as an original 

 observer Prof. Williamson handled this subject in his masterly 

 and systematic memoir, in which, escaping from some of 

 Ehrenberg's biological errors, but still hampered by others, 

 he first makes a review of his own • collected materials — 

 Desmids, Diatoms, Xanthids, Sponge-spicules, Foraminifera, 



* Op. cit. p. 312. "From the rapid and great increase of the knowledge 

 of aw indepenilent deep-working life in the smcdiest space, it follows that this 

 field of research cannot be unworthy of the best eftbrts ; and if it be not 

 always equally and quickly productive, or if it may be more agreeable 

 with easier speculation, and rather in poetic sport than seriously, to 

 penetrate into the Remote, yet the only scientific and remunerating 

 method is by slow and sure steps, and under the check of careful, and 

 therefore laborioiis, research, to approach the goal which excites the 

 minds of all thinking men of all generations, and will interest all ge- 

 nerations yet to come." 



t ' On some of the Microscopical Objects found in the Mud of the Levant, 

 and other Deposits, with remarks on the Mode of Formation of Calcareous 

 and Infusorial Siliceous Rocks.' 8vo, Manchester, 1847. (From vol. viii. 

 of the Manchester Literary and Philos. Society's Memoirs.) 



