362 Dr. 0. Schmidt on Coccoliths and Eliabdoliths. 



same depths some very yomig Bivalves, of scarcely | millim. 

 in diameter, made their appearance, whilst no trace of full- 

 grown animals was to be found, can only be explained by the 

 supposition that the larvaj furnished with their velum were 

 driven unusually far into the open sea. 



I turn now to the Bathyhms-mud and the coccoliths. Very 

 soon after my return, I published in the ^Ausland,' No. 30, a 

 short notice of the discovery of these bodies at all depths in 

 the Adriatic Sea, from 50 fathoms downwards, with the addition 

 that they would no doubt be present also at less depths. I 

 was consequently in advance of the publication of the extended 

 investigations and discoveries of Glimbel, as he explained in 

 No. 32 of the same journal. We have now a more detailed 

 statement of these hne observations*, which show the extra- 

 ordinary diffusion of Batliyhius and the coccoliths in all depths 

 of all seas of the actual world, and the colossal part taken by 

 them in building up the crust of the earth, I had also already 

 made the discovery that the coccoliths are strongly represented 

 in the raised land of Brindisi. Now, as Hackel also nearly at 

 the same time investigated the coccoliths with his usual 

 thoroughness t, it might seem to be superfluous for me to go 

 into the same subject. 



But as Giimbel's work, so far as it is at present before us, 

 extends only to the demonstration of the presence of coccoliths 

 in the most various calcareous and marly deposits and in 

 the sediments of the present day, and to certain reactions of 

 Batliyhius^ and as I am obliged to conceive the structure of the 

 coccoliths differently from Hackel in several points, and, finally, 

 as, from the almost inconceivable importance of the coccoliths, 

 any contribution to their more accurate knowledge must be 

 welcome, the present memoir will carry with it its own justifi- 

 cation. 



I will first of all deal with a statement of Giimbel's, "that 

 it is certainly conceivable that Batliyhius takes its origin in 

 the sarcode of the lower animals." He is led to this by the 

 observation, "that when the shell of calcareous-shelled Fora- 

 minifera is dissolved away by dilute acid, their punctate mem- 

 branes and granular flocks remain undissolved in the residue, 

 which latter possess the form and reaction oi Batliyhius. These 

 remains, indeed, may just as well be the residue of the sarcode 

 of the Foraminifera as of our Batliyhius^ which had only been 

 deposited in the cavities of the Foraminifera, and in this way 

 comes again into view." The sarcode of the Foraminifera will 



* Giimbel, "Vorliiufige Mittheilimgen liber Tiefseeschlamm," N. Jahrb. 

 fiir Mineral. &c. 1870, Heft 6. 



t Hackel, " Beitrage zur Plastidentlieorie," Jenaisclie Zeitscbrift, v, 3. 



