GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 185 



merits of locomotion, are effected by means of pseudopodial prolongations of the 

 sarcode, put forth through apertures in the shell, and capable, when retracted again, 

 of coalescing with the general mass. In the case of the composite forms, he con- 

 sidered the entire animal to be made up of a series of segments which are essentially 

 repetitions one of another, each possessing an independent vitality of its own*. 

 These statements have been subsequently confirmed and rendered more precise by 

 several other observers ; their truth has been admitted by M. D'ORBIGNY, who, in all 

 his recent works, has described the animals of the Foraminifera in accordance witli 

 them (though without any allusion to the fact, that he had himself previously laboured 

 under an entire misconception of their character, and without any mention of the 

 discoverer of their real nature) ; and they have been recently placed beyond all doubt, 

 by the admirable researches of Professor SCHULTZE (Op. cit.). 



It cannot but seem surprising, that notwithstanding the light thrown upon this 

 inquiry by M.DUJARDIN in 1835, Professor EHRENBERG should in 1838 have announced 

 to the Academy at Berlin, his conclusion, professedly based on observations of 

 certain forms of these animals in their living state, that their true place in the animal 

 kingdom is among the Bryozoa-\-. He described them as possessing a distinct 

 alimentary canal, which extends from segment to segment ; this, however, instead of 

 being single, as in Nonionina, may (he tells us) be multiple, as in Geoponus; so that 

 we must regard each segment of the latter, however apparently resembling the simple 

 segment of the former, as in reality composed of several adhering bodies. In one 

 instance (he affirms) he found the mouth surrounded by a plumose sensory and pre- 

 hensile apparatus, like that of the Fiustrce and Halcyonellue (see ultra, ^| 4.), but 

 generally speaking he admits that this is altogether wanting, the mouth being a simple 

 aperture. He saw minute extensile tentacula proceeding from all parts of the sieve- 

 like shell, as described by DUJARDIN, and admitted their resemblance to the pseudo- 

 podia of Difflugia, &c., but he remarks, " the rest of their organization, which 

 DUJARDIN has overlooked, removes them from the Infusoria, quite as far as from a 

 chaotic primitive substance." Besides the alimentary canal, Professor EHRENBERG 

 describes a yellowish-brown granular mass as accompanying and sometimes surround- 

 ing it up to the last of the spirals ; this he considers as an ovary. 



As I have reason to believe that Professor EHRENBERG stands quite alone in this 

 opinion (if, indeed, he still maintains it), and that the real nature of the segments of 

 sarcode and of their connecting threads, is no longer a matter of question among 

 those Naturalists who have given their unprejudiced attention to the subject, I do 

 not think it requisite to occupy either time or space with any further discussion of 

 the question, and therefore dismiss it with this brief mention. 



* See his " Histoire Naturelle des Infusoires," Paris, 1841 ; and Art. Rhizopodes in Diet. Univ. d'Hist. Nat., 

 torn. xi. p. 115, Paris, 1848. 



t See his Memoirs in the Transactions of the Royal Academy of Berlin, for 1839 and 1840; also 

 TAYLOR'S Scientific Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 319. 



