io8 REMINISCENCES OF 



which he brought back. I found it rich in Foramin- 

 ifera, especially in the finest forms of Polystomella 

 ^crispa. During the first three decades of the cen- 

 tury, the Foraminifera had been regarded as the 

 internal shells of a small Cephalopodous mollusc. 

 In my memoir on the Levant mud, I ignorantly 

 .allowed myself to be led by Ehrenberg, who believed 

 them to be Bryozoa, closely related to the genera 

 Flustra and Eschara. 



The specimens now accumulating in my hands 

 soon showed me that this was a mistake. Whilst 

 my own experience was thus altering my views, I 

 learnt that, some time previously, Dujardin had been 

 investigating some living forms of Foraminifera; 

 which observations made it clear, that in them at 

 least the soft animal was little more than a structure- 

 less jelly or animated slime, like that forming the 

 body of the well-known Proteus animalcule, but 

 capable of protruding filaments of great tenuity, 

 through the Foraminifera thin shells. This, which 

 proved to be the true explanation of the organisation 

 of these animals, had been before the Academic des 

 Sciences in 1835. But as yet nothing was known 

 of the structure of their shells. My rich supply of 

 Polystomella enabled me in beginning with them to 

 throw light on this question of structure. The 

 results of my inquiry were announced in a memoir 

 published in the second volume of the " Transactions 

 " of the London Microscopical Society." My conclu- 

 sions respecting the soft animal now approximated 



