578 
ous, as rampant, and as malignant in bibli- 
cal times as they are to-day,it is only quite 
recently that the world has gained any con- 
ception of their enormous antiquity, and if 
any one ever supposed that their chief mis- 
sion was to punish man for his sins, the fact, 
now made clear by this and kindred investiga- 
tions, that they existed in equal numbers and 
in all parts of the world in Tertiary, Sec- 
ondary, and even Primary time, 7%. e., ten to 
fifty millions of years before man made his ap- 
pearance on the globe is calculated to shake 
that belief. The microscope, which has so won- 
derfully illuminated the hidden mysteries of 
the present and the invisible world in which we 
live, has now been leveled at the past and 
brought to bear upon that vast and hoary an- 
tiquity of which we could scarcely form a con- 
ception even if we were able to express it in 
terms of our chronology. 
In this work M. Renault treats the micro- 
organisms of past ages under eight different 
heads, chiefly in the descending order of their 
occurrence in geologic time, viz., 1st, those 
found in peat beds of recent origin; 2d, those 
found in lignite beds, chiefly of Tertiary age; 
3d, those found in certain modern bituminous 
schists; 4th, those found in the so-called boghead 
formations ; 5th, those found in cannel coal ; 
6th, those found in true coal of the Carbonifer- 
ous formation ; 7th, those found in certain an- 
cient bituminous schists; 8th, those found pre- 
served in flint or silica, chiefly of Carboniferous 
age. 
Peat may be called coal in the making, and 
consists almost entirely of vegetable matter 
that has accumulated, often to considerable 
thickness, where this. matter has undergone 
prolonged maceration. The bulk of it is 
formed of the remains of the plants that grew 
on the spot, and which, either from the weight 
of this constantly increasing superincumbent 
mass, or from other causes, slowly sink and 
become buried by successive renewals of the 
same materials. It takes place in marshes or 
swamps kept perpetually wet or submerged, 
under which conditions certain plants long re- 
tain their vegetable substance. Many of them, 
especially dicotyledonous leaves and certain 
mosses, are thus often preserved permanently, 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Vou. XIII. No. 328. 
and from their remains much may be learned 
of the flora of the period at which the peat was 
formed. Certain seeds are also well adapted 
to permanent preservation in peat, and it is 
only recently that extensive investigations of 
the peat beds of northern Europe have been 
undertaken by this method. Mr. Leo Lesque- 
reux published in 1844 the results of extensive 
researches made by him on the peat bogs of the 
Jura Mountains and Central Europe, and Axel 
Blytt, Nathorst, Andersson, Sernander, Munthe 
and others have thoroughly studied those of 
Scandinavia and other northern regions, while 
Mr. Clement Reid has in this way successfully 
worked out the problem of the origin of the 
British flora. Besides impressions of mosses, 
and of leaves and stems, and the numerous 
seeds of spermatophytes found in these beds, 
the siliceous spicules of many genera and 
species of diatoms have been detected and sys- 
tematically treated. 
But M. Renault has availed himself of the 
higher powers of the microscope and has made 
known to us a large number of other forms of 
microscopic life. The Bacteriaceze are found 
abundantly in the peat of Fragny and Loura- 
dou in France, and he has illustrated species of 
Bacillus, Micrococcus, Streptococcus, Cladothryx, 
ete. The mycelium of numerous fungi also 
occur. : 
The principal lignites studied for this mon- 
ograph have been those of Hérault in the 
Department of Ain, of Saint-Martin-du-Mont 
(Ain), of Célas, and Durfort (Gard), and of 
Sainte-Colombe (Yonne). The first of these, 
which are Eocene in age, yielded both animal 
and vegetable forms; Infusoria of the genera 
Aspidisca, Cinetoconia, Ploesconia, Vorticellina, 
ete., the conidia of fungi referable to the genera 
Helminthosporium and Macrosporiwm, and the 
mycelium of species of Morosporium. Diatoms 
also occur (Frustulia) and Micrococci. The other 
lignites from localities in France were less 
fruitful but contained some of the same forms. 
Besides these, however, M. Renault examined 
material from Vicenza in Italy and from Coro- 
nel in Chili. The latter especially was found 
to be rich in conidia of the genus Helmintho- 
sporium and in amceboid forms of the radiate 
type (Orbulinella, Hedriocystis, Olathrulina). 
