Misiilliini-oHS. 1 ].") 



our i(luu8, and cspeciully upsctti iiuiiiy systouiH ; it iu (jiie ot tliDse 

 which coiistitutu epochs iii the scieiices. " Tliis memoir wils lolluwtd 

 hy contributions wliich were continued until the year l>i;j.j. In 

 iSiW in)j)eared the <;reat work ' Die Ini'usion.sthierchen als vollcn- 

 dete Or^ranisnien,' with Ol plates, for which and lor hi.s f^eoloj^ical 

 researches the (Jeolijpi-al Society conferred upon Ehrenher;; the 

 Wollaston medal as a special distinction. As early as l^;i(l, Kiiren- 

 berj; had di.scovcred that the jtolishinf^-powder known as tnjjoli 

 abounded in fossil or^anisnia, and that the polishinf^-slatc of liilin, 

 near Teplitz, ctmtained innumerable siliceous shells of similar crea- 

 tures. The same residt was obtained l)y the microscopic exami- 

 nation of the so-called "• edible eartlis " from various localities. 

 'I'his occurrence of fossil or{j;auism8 was soon afterwards demonstrated 

 liy Ehrenbcrg in older formations, as is evidenced by his memoirs 

 *J)ie Uildunp; des europaischen, libyschen uud uralischcn Krei- 

 defelsens und Kreidemergels aus mikroskopiscben Organi&men ' 

 (ISVJ), and 'Leber noch jetzt zahlreich lebenden Thierartcu der 

 Kreidebildung und den Organismus der Polythalumien.' In the 

 year 1^'41 he demonstrated tlie presence of organisms in the peat-beds 

 in various jtarts of Ikrlin (Museum, Fricdrichsstrasse, and Karls- 

 strasso), and gave an impulse to the technical employment of these, 

 and of the Infusorial earth of Ebstorf in the Liineburger Ilaide, as, 

 according to the reports of old writers, an earth serving for polishing- 

 puq)08e8 could be used for the manufacture of light building-stones, 

 capable of floating upon the water, and the dome of the moscjue of 

 Saint Sophia, the celebrated structmx' of tlio Emperor Justinian, is 

 composed of such stones. \\ itli the hearty cooperation of the then 

 director of the lloyal Porcelain Factory, the Mining Privy CouuciUor 

 Frick, Ehreiiberg had stones manufactuied from the Berlin material, 

 wliich jirovcd from their porous nature to be very useful, and were 

 employed by the architect Hoffmann in the construction of the 

 cupola of the museum. 



In 1S45, at the request of the Mining Department, Ehrenberg 

 made investigations on the diffusion of the infusorial tuffs in the 

 Eifel ; in 1S47 he jmblished his " Beobachtungen iiber Passatstaub 

 und Blutregen," in the Memoirs of the Academy of Berlin ; and this 

 was I'oUowed by a lojig scries of papers in the ' Monatsberichte.' In 

 1^40 he had prepared his < Microgeologie,' which appeared in lho4, 

 with 41 coi»perplatC3. The first part of a continuation of this work, 

 relating specially to America, apju-ared in 1>5<). 



A new field is opened by his works on the Grecnsarjd and the illus- 

 trations of its organic life ( l^.jo), and his communications on the 

 graduidlv advancing knowledge of immense (}uantities of microscopic 

 organic forms in the lowest Silurian dejiosits near Saint Petersburg 

 (lNolJ-<)2). His attention also was vi\-idly excited by the recent 

 investigations of the sea-]»otti>m ; so that, by the receipt of sami»les of 

 soundings from the most diflerent regions, he was enabled to inves- 

 tigate thoroughly the microscopic organisms of tlic depths of the sea. 

 In l.'-'72 he published a revision of these, illustrated with 12 plates, 

 which was followed in ls75 by a work on " die fossilcn Erd- und 



8* 



