122 Notice of Dr. MantelVs Medals of Creation. 



Every where the tertiary, cretaceous, and other secondary de- 

 posits are replete with fossil animalcules, the study of which, 

 with the aid of the microscope, can be pursued quietly at home. 

 Prof. Ehrenberg of Berlin led the way, and Prof. Bailey of West 

 Point has successfully followed, in these brilliant investigations, 

 in which others also are engaged. 



A cubic inch of the marine sands of the Paris basin is calcu- 

 lated to contain 60,000 foraminifera and infusoria. The state- 

 ment is now familiar that the polishing slate of Bilin contains in a 

 cubic inch 41,000,000,000 of animalcules, ( GaillonellcB. ) In Lap- 

 land, a similar earth is mixed with ground bark of trees for food. 

 The infusorial marls of Petersburg and Richmond, Va. are rich 

 in fossil animalcules of great variety, elegance, and interest ; and 

 we may add, that the city of Charleston, S. C, stands (as re- 

 cently ascertained by Prof. Bailey) upon immense beds of ani- 

 malcules. In the northern seas there are minute animals "pre- 

 cisely similar to those which lived in a much lower latitude at 

 some remote period." 



" It has long been known that a large proportion of the pres- 

 ent white chalk consists of minute chambered shells and corals," 

 and Ehrenberg has now shown, " that each cubic inch of chalk 

 may contain upwards of one million of well preserved animal- 

 culites and shells." "Numerous shells, corals, and infusoria of 

 the most ancient cretaceous deposits, are identical with existing 

 species; in the sea-water of Cuxhaven, &c. 21 genera and 40 

 species are found, differing in no respect from fossils that occur 

 in chalk." The compact crystalline marble of the Pyrenees is 

 replete with nummulites, and the great pyramid of Egypt is 

 composed of them, with a cement of microscopic animalculites ; 

 and a range of mountains near Suggsville, U. S., 300 feet high, 

 is composed entirely of one species of nummulite.* A large 

 portion of the sand of the Lybian desert is composed of fossil 

 animalcules ; and as they are found more or less in all the secon- 

 dary strata, it is proved that they have contributed largely to the 

 formation of the present crust of the planet. 



Zoophytes. — They were so called from a false impression that 

 they were plants having an animal nature, whereas their animal 



* Dr. Morton. 



