PROCEEDINGS OF THE MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 93 



Ruckland on Fossil Remains of Minute Organisms. Mr. Tennant has 

 informed me, that a microscopic examination of the Stonesfield slate by 

 Mr. Darker, and of other oolites, has recently shown them to be crowded 

 with remains of organized bodies, invisible to the naked eye. I learn 

 also from Mr. Tennant, that abundant microscopic organic remains have 

 recently been discovered in thin slices of certain beds of carboniferous 

 limestone from Derbyshire : similar results may shortly be expected 

 from a microscopic examination of the chert of the same formation. 

 We must not, however, be tempted by these discoveries to rush suddenly 

 to the rash and unwarranted conclusion, that all limestone and all silex 

 is of organic origin. It has not yet been shown, that the granules 

 resembling the roe of fishes, which give character to the oolitic forma- 

 tion, and abound occasionally in limestone of the triopic carboniferous and 

 Silurian series, have any necessary connexion with organic bodies. We 

 may, with Ehrenberg, admit and admire the extent of microscopic cham- 

 bered cells and Infusoria which he has shown so largely to pervade the 

 chalk and other calcareous and silicious formations, without claiming an 

 exclusively animal origin for the native substance of all rocks in which 

 lime or silex is the principal ingredient. (From Dr. Buckland's Address 

 to the Geological Society.} 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



March 1 6th, 1841. Professor Lindley in the Chair. 



MR. EDWIN J. QUEKETT made some observations upon a peculiar woody 

 tissue which he had detected in a specimen of Coal. The method 

 adopted in the present instance to discover the structure, was by taking 

 from the specimen, which exhibited a surface like charcoal on one of 

 its sides, some minute scrapings, by the aid of a sharp knife, and im- 

 mersing them in Canada Balsam. By this means the woody fibres be- 

 came more or less separated, and certain of these fibres then appeared 

 as if containing some resinous matter, which had preserved their 

 original character, appearing perfect as in recent wood. The structure 

 of the woody fibres was evidently that of the coniferous character; 

 where there are more than one row of dots on each fibre, these dots 

 appeared to be formed by two spirals wound in the interior in different 

 directions, the turns of each connected at intervals by longitudinal 

 bands, thereby leaving a transparent space by such arrangement. 



Mr. Quekett also exhibited a silicified specimen of coniferous wood 

 (said to be from Greenland), which presented the like structure. No- 

 thing analogous, he believed, had hitherto been detected in recent woods. 



Mr. Busk exhibited some parasitic insects which he had received from 

 South America : they were sent to him in a letter, and were still alive. 

 They are said to be highly injurious to horned cattle, not only producing 

 destructive skin diseases, but often occasioning caries and necrosis of 

 the bones, by their burrowing into the joints. 



