NA TURE 



53; 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1884 



THE "CHALLENGER" REPORTS 

 Report of the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. 

 " Chillenger" during the Years 1S73-76 under the 

 Command of Capt. George S. Nares, R.N., F.R.S., and 

 Capt. Frank Tourle Thomson, R.N. Prepared under 

 the Superintendence of the late Sir C. Wyville Thomson 

 Knt , F.R.S., &c, and now of John Murray, F.R.S.E.' 

 one of the Naturalists of the Expedition. Zoology — 

 Vol. IX. Text and Plates. Two Vols. (Published by- 

 Order of Her Majesty's Government, 1884.) 



A NOTHER volume forming Part XXII. of theZoologi- 

 cal Series of Reports on the Scientific Results of the 

 Challenger Expedition has just been published, containing 

 an account of the Foraminifera by H. B. Brady, F.R.S. 

 It will be universally acknowledged that the task of pre- 

 paring this Report could not have been intrusted to abler 

 hands. The representatives of this interesting group of 

 animals, writes Mr. Murray in an editorial note, are 

 universally distributed over the floor of the ocean and in 

 its surface and sub-surface waters, and the presence or 

 absence of certain surface forms in the deposits from dif- 

 ferent depths and localities is intimately connected with 

 some of the most remarkable and intricate problems of 

 general Oceanography. It was therefore of the first 

 importance that one very familiar with the group of the 

 Foraminifera should have been chosen to undertake so 

 vast an amount of labour as was requisite to investigate 

 the enormous quantity of material that was collected. 

 The Report itself is the best evidence of the great success 

 which has attended Mr. Brady's investigations ; it con- 

 sists of a volume of text of over Soo pages, and is accom- 

 panied by a volume of 115 very exquisitely executed 

 plates. 



While the chief part of the Report is taken up with the 

 descriptions of the new or rare species of Foraminifera 

 furnished by the various bottom-dredgings and tow-net 

 gatherings obtained during the Challenger Expedition, 

 the author has also included some account of the col- 

 lections made in the regions of the North Atlantic, which 

 though not visited by the Challenger, were explored 

 during the expedition of the Porcupine in 1S69, and he 

 has made the survey of the group more complete by also 

 referring to the forms found during the cruise of the 

 Knight Errant in 1SS0, and during the British and 

 Austro-Hungarian North Polar Expeditions. 



The Report, however, contains a great deal more than 

 descriptions of new or rare species. From Mr. Brady's 

 large acquaintance with the multifarious forms to be met 

 with in the group and with its literature, he has been 

 enabled to treat in a full and able manner the subject of 

 the classification of these forms, and has thereby deve- 

 loped this Report into an elaborate monograph of recent 

 Foraminifera. 



In an admirably written introduction a sketch is given 

 of the gradual development of our knowledge of these 

 forms from the time of D'Orbigny (1826) to the present, 

 and an elaborately compiled bibliography is appended. 

 The various classifications of the Rhizopods, from that of 

 Vol. xxx.— No. 779 



Dujardin in 1S41 to that of Leidy in 1879, are glanced at. 

 More details are given as to the various attempts at 

 classifying the Foraminifera, and the author proposes a 

 scheme differing in many respects, and often widely, from 

 those given by previous writers, but one which, in its 

 essential elements, is in no way incompatible with the 

 different conclusions at which they had arrived. The 

 nature of the investment of the animal — that is to say, 

 the minute structure of its test — as an exclusive basis for 

 the primary divisions of the order, has been abandoned. 

 While under all circumstances it furnishes important cha- 

 racters, and is even in some families quite distinctive, it 

 is nevertheless a fact that, whilst there are certain groups 

 which are invariably arenaceous, and some which are 

 always calcareous and perforate, there are yet others in 

 which no uniform rule obtains. The author omits any 

 division of the order into sub-orders, not finding any 

 easily-recognised characters to serve as a basis for such 

 subdivision, and he divides the order at once into families. 

 These families are (1) Gromidae, (2) Miliolidae, (3) Astro- 

 rhizida;, (4) Lituolida;, (5) Textularidae, (6) Cheilostomidae, 

 (7) Lagenidae, (8) Globigerinidae, (9) Rotalidas, (10) Num- 

 raialinidae. The Grbmidae, a family composed chiefly of 

 fresh-water organisms, " have been a source of consider- 

 able trouble, on account of the want of accuracy and 

 detail in the published descriptions of a number of types 

 more or less closely allied to the group, and only such 

 genera have been included as are known to have long, 

 reticulated pseudopodia." In this portion of the subject 

 the author has had the advantage of the advice of his 

 friend William Archer. " The sub-family Dactyloporinae, 

 which in the original draft was placed with some reserva- 

 tion amongst the Miliolida;, pending the fuller publication 

 of the results of Munier-Chahnas's researches, is now 

 entirely omitted. The examination of specimens brought 

 under my notice by E. Perceval Wright and C. Schlum- 

 berger has removed any doubt left on my mind as to the 

 propriety of the transfer of the entire group to the cal- 

 careous Alga?." The singular genus Bathysiphon of Sars 

 has been removed to the Astrorhizidae. 



With reference to the subject of nomenclature, the 

 following are Mr. Brady's views, which seem founded on 

 common sense, and with which we entirely agree. It is 

 surely not requisite in a group like this "that a uniform 

 standard of fixity of characters should be adopted, or 

 that a set of beings of low organisation and extreme 

 variability should be subjected to precisely the same 

 treatment as the higher divisions of the animal kingdom. 

 The advantages of a binomial system of nomenclature 

 have not diminished since the days of Linnaeus, though 

 the views of the naturalist as to what constitutes a 

 'genus' or a 'species' have changed, and will probably 

 continue to change, but, be that as it may, the Linnaean 

 method is too simple and convenient to be abandoned 

 without some better reason than the different value of 

 these terms as employed in different zoological groups." 

 " The practical point upon which all are agreed is that it is 

 impossible to deal satisfactorily with the multiform varie- 

 ties of Foraminifera without a much freer use of distinctive 

 names than is needful or indeed permissible amongst 

 animals endowed with more stable characters." All 

 who have had any experience of the life-history of these 

 Rhizopods, who know their immense plasticness, and yet 



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