182 DR. CARPENTER'S RESEARCHES ON THE FORAMINIFEKA. 



and systematized, must be provisional merely. No general foundation has yet been 

 laid for that due appreciation of the value of characters, which, in the case of every 

 natural group, must be based on the careful study of its own plan of organization, 

 and of the modifications which this may undergo, and which cannot be safely deduced 

 by analogy, from the study of any other group, however closely related. Far less 

 can any such analogy be truly available, that is drawn from the higher forms of 

 Mollusca, and applied to one of those simple types of animal structure, which are 

 now commonly included under the general designation Protozoa. 



Having been myself convinced, by the careful examination and extensive com- 

 parison which I have had the opportunity of making, as to the external characters 

 and internal structure of certain Foraminifera, that neither in regard to the limitation 

 of species, nor the association of these into genera, nor the grouping of genera into 

 Families and Orders, is such an analogy to be in the least degree relied upon, I am 

 prepared to show that the whole fabric which has been erected on the basis of it, is 

 utterly insecure ; and that every attempt to erect a new classification of the group, 

 without a far more intimate knowledge of the anatomical structure and of the physio- 

 logical history of the animals composing it, than has yet been sought for, must neces- 

 sarily be premature and therefore unsound. 



If, therefore, notwithstanding the large amount of labour which has been given to 

 the study of this group, we are really as yet only at the very commencement of an 

 exact acquaintance with it, I venture to think that any contribution towards a more 

 intimate knowledge will be welcomed, by all such as consider that systematic arange- 

 ments can only be of value, when based on an extensive comparison, not merely of 

 the external forms, but of the internal organization, of the objects to be classified, 

 and when carried out under the guidance of a competent knowledge of their Physi- 

 ology as living beings. It may be well for me here to state, that the greater part of 

 the results which I purpose to communicate in successive Memoirs, are based upon 

 the examination, not of a limited number of individuals, but of three very extensive 

 suites of specimens, which have been liberally placed at my disposal ; the first of these 

 series having been formed from the dredgings of Mr. J. BEETE JUKES on the coast of 

 Australia, into the possession of which I came through the instrumentality of my late 

 friend Professor E. FORBES ; the second having been furnished by the collection of 

 Foraminifera made by Mr. HUGH CUMING on the shores of the Philippine Islands, 

 and unreservedly given up to me by that gentleman for the purposes of scientific 

 investigation ; and the third being the admirably-arranged series in the possession of 

 my friend Mr. W. K. PARKER, who has for several years been patiently and industri- 

 ously bringing together from various sources a set of illustrations of this group, which 

 in many departments may be safely pronounced to be quite unique. The import- 

 ance of the first two of these collections consists, not in the number of species they 

 include, for this is comparatively limited ; but, on the one hand, in the extraordi- 

 nary development as to size which most of these species present ; and on the other, 



