194 DR. CARPENTER'S RESEARCHES ON THE FORAMINIFERA. 



12. The state of preservation of tlie animal body of the Orbitolite, in the spirit- 

 specimens which I have examined, is so complete, as to leave me no room for hesi- 

 tation in affirming that it corresponds in every particular with the 'sarcode' which 

 we have seen to have been first described by M. DUJARDIN, as constituting the bodies 

 ' of many of the lowest organisms, and especially as the component of those of the 

 Rhizopoda. A small portion of this substance, sufficiently magnified to exhibit its 

 nearly homogeneous jelly-like aspect, with minute granules and somewhat larger par- 

 ticles scattered through it, is shown in Plate IV. fig. 2. Although it is so far decolo- 

 rized in spirit-specimens as to present only a brownish hue, yet as specimens that 

 have been gathered fresh and have been then dried, possess a reddish aspect, and as 

 this is not due to the shelly substance, it may be presumed that the sarcode of the 

 living Orbitolite has the same bright red colour as that of Rotalia and many other 

 Forarninifera. The entire animal body (Plate IV. fig. 1) is composed of a numerous 

 assemblage of minute segments, arranged at tolerably regular intervals in concentric 

 zones around a sort of central 'nucleus;' the segments composing each zone being 

 united with each other by a continuous annular 'stolon' or band of sarcode, and 

 being connected with those of the adjoining zones by peduncles of the same material. 

 I have not met with the least indication that the sarcode is contained within any 

 proper membrane ; and the absence of any such indication, notwithstanding the 

 various manipulations to which I have subjected its segments, may be taken, 1 think, 

 as strong negative evidence that it has no more existence in this animal, than it has 

 in the species of Foraminifera which have been so well studied by M. DUJARDIN and 

 Professor SCHULTZE. Nor is there the slightest trace of distinct organs, either in the 

 mass of sarcode which forms the central nucleus, or in that which constitutes each 

 one of the surrounding segments ; and he would, I think, be a mere speculator, who 

 should maintain the presence of a digestive cavity in any of these parts, or the exist- 

 ence of an intestinal canal in the peduncular threads which connect them together. 

 The homogeneity of the component substance of the central nucleus, and of the 

 entire assemblage of multiple segments, seems, indeed, to be conclusively established 

 by the following facts: In all the spirit-specimens which I have examined, the cavi- 

 ties of the outer zones are completely void, whilst those of the nucleus and of the 

 inner zones are quite filled with their animal contents. This drawing-together of 

 the soft body towards the centre, is evidenced also in many of the larger specimens 

 which have been dried when collected in the living state, by the limitation of the red 

 colour that indicates the presence of the sarcode, to the inner portion of the disk. 

 In both cases it may be presumed that the animal matter has shrunk together, in the 

 former through the corrugating action of the spirit, in the latter through desiccation. 

 Now if the polypidom of a zoophyte be similarly treated, there is no such drawing 

 together of the entire body, but each cell is found to contain the shrunk contents of 

 its own polype-segment ; and this difference seems to me to indicate a complete dis- 

 similarity in the characters of the two organisms. For it is obvious that the sub- 



