Miscellaneous. 487 



esting paper, which is illustrated by six beautiful plates, with a 

 notice of Sarsia rosaria, probably from a Synaoryne abounding on 

 the piers of a wharf, and with notes also on a Campanularian, on 

 Willia, Athorybia, and Velella. W. C. M. 



Chemical Researches on the Fossil Tests of Foraminifera, Mollusca, 

 and Crustacea. By M. Stanislas Meunier. 



M. de Folin having obtained a flocculent residue by the treatment 

 of Nuinmulitic rocks from Biarritz with acids, came to the conclu- 

 sion that this was of organic nature, and regarded it. as sarcodic 

 material. He called the author's attention to the subject, who care- 

 fully repeated the experiments upon Nuuirnulitic rocks from the 

 neighbourhood of Paris. Examples of Nummulites laevigatas were 

 partially dissolved in dilute hydrochloric acid until they were quite 

 cleared and milk-white ; they were then dissolved in fresh acid, and 

 the residue, amounting to 2*233 per cent, of the Nummulites, was 

 examined. 



This residue had the appearance of very fine clay, but on heating 

 to redness some portions on platinum foil they became brown, then 

 carbonized, and after combustion left a reddish residue. On 

 heating the substance in a tube with some soda-lime a strong evo- 

 lution of ammonia took place. It is therefore a nitrogeuous 

 substance. 



This supposed animal substance, however, forms only 16*66 per 

 cent, of the flocculent mass, and the mineral material associated 

 with it renders analysis difficult. The results of analysis, given with 

 some reserve, are as follows: — 



Carbon G4 



Hydrogen o 



Nitrogen 12 



Oxygen (difference) 19 



100 



The author has repeated the experiments with similar results in 

 the case of other French Eoraminiferal rocks. 



By the advice of M. Milne- Edwards he extended his researches to 

 the fossilized tests of various Mollusca and Crustacea, among which 

 he cites Psammocareimis Herieartii and Cythercea sjdendida, and in 

 all cases obtained the organic compound with the same composition 

 and properties. As in the case of the Nummulites the substance is 

 light grey, with a peculiar silky lustre, and it is mixed with a very 

 considerable amount of mineral elements, consisting especially of 

 small acicular crystals of carbonate of lime. 



The author believes that in the organic compounds obtained we 

 have a residue of the fossil animals which may be compared with 

 the carbonaceous combustibles of vegetable origin, and that it is to 

 their presence that we must ascribe the discovery of nitrogen so 

 frequently repeated by Delesse.in his analyses of sedimentary rocks. 

 — Com^tes Bendus, March 17, 1890, p. 597. 



