CHALK MAKERS, OR FORAMINIFERA. 41 



sea-water. Noticing suspicious circumstances in 

 some of the individuals, he cleaned and examined 

 one, which he found to contain coarsely granular 

 yellowish-brown substance, the true nature of which 

 could not be ascertained, on account of the opacity of 

 the shell. He then proceeded to break up the shell, 

 in which he counted ten chambers, and was not a 

 little astonished, after detaching the first fragments of 

 the shell, when some small three-chambered Forami- 

 nifera made their appearance, of which, after crushing 

 and breaking up the mother, no less than from twenty 

 to thirty were brought to light. They were all of 

 nearly equal size, and each shell was three-chambered, 

 the earliest chamber containing brownish-yellow sub- 

 stance, the others colourless. The shell appeared 

 very thin and brittle, but immature. The artificial 

 birth was too early for the young animals, and they 

 manifested no signs of life. He then proceeded to 

 watch the remaining specimens in the bottle, and 

 soon observed in the neighbourhood of two of them 

 an accumulation of small granules, which, when 

 detached and placed under the microscope, were 

 found to be also small three-chambered Foraminifera 

 (Rotalina), exactly of the same size and form as those 

 liberated artificially from their parent, differing only 

 in the second chamber beginning to show a yellow 

 colour. " Here, therefore/' he says, " we have a new 

 proof that the Foraminifera bear living young, and 



