116 Ehrejiherg^s Discoveries — Notices of Eminent Men. 



Art. XIT. — Notice of Prof . Ehrenherg^s Discoveries in relation to 

 Fossil Animalcules ; also Notices of Deceased Members of the 

 Geological Society of London, being extracts from the Address 

 of Rev. William Whewell, B. D. P. R. S., President of the 

 Society ; delivered at the Annual Meeting, Feb. 15, 1839. 



The Council have adjudged the Wollaston medal for the pre- 

 sent year to Prof. Ehrenberg, for his discoveries respecting fossil 

 Infusoria and other microscopic objects contained in the materials 

 of the earth's strata. We all recollect the astonishment with 

 which, nearly three years ago, we received the assertion, that 

 large masses of rock, and even whole strata, are composed of 

 the remains of microscopic animals. This assertion, made at 

 that time by Professor Ehrenberg, has now not only been fully 

 confirmed and very greatly extended by him, but it has assumed 

 the character of one of the most important geological truths 

 which have been brought to light in our time : for the connection 

 of the present state of the earth with its condition at former pe- 

 riods of its history, a problem now always present to the mind of 

 the philosophical geologist, receives new and unexpected illustra- 

 tion from these researches. Of about eighty species of fossil In- 

 fusoria which have been discovered in various strata, almost the 

 half .are species which still exist in the waters : and thus these 

 forms of life, so long overlooked as invisible specks of brute mat- 

 ter, have a constancy and durability through the revolutions of 

 the earth's surface which are denied to animals of a more con- 

 spicuous size and organization. Again, we are so accustomed to 

 receive new confirmations of our well-established geological doc- 

 trines, that the occurrence of such an event produces in us little 

 surprise ; but if this were not so, we could not avoid being struck 

 with one feature of Prof. Ehrenberg's discoveries; — that while 

 the microscopic contents of the more recent strata are all freshwa- 

 ter Infusoria, those of the chalk are bodies {Peridinium Xanthi- 

 dium, Fucoides,) which must, or at least can, live in the waters of 

 the ocean. Nor has Prof. Ehrenberg been content Avith examin- 

 ing the rocks in which these objects occur. During the last two 

 years he has been pursuing a highly interesting series of researches 

 with a view of ascertaining in what manner these vast masses of 

 minute animals can have been accumulated. And the result of 



