90 Reviews — The Foraminifera of Ehrenberg. 



accumulations extending over a considerable area would, he tliinks, 

 "be amply sufficient to account for that depression of the land upon 

 which the existence of these harbours depends." 



We have devoted so much space to Dr. Eicketts' views, because, 

 coming from the President of the Liverpool Geological Society, we 

 fancy that more faith might be put in them by some than a careful 

 consideration would warrant. Dr. Eicketts has put forward some 

 ideas which may in certain cases explain, or at any rate help to 

 explain, phenomena ; but he has pushed his theory too far. If our 

 crust were so feeble that the accumulation of a delta, a shingle beach, 

 or the ice and droppings of a glacier, could weigh it down gradually, 

 we naturally ask, why is not the whole of the land sinking 

 gradually ? And how can elevation be due to denudation of material, 

 when denudation cannot take place until the area has been brought 

 up to within its influences ? 



We have read Dr. Eicketts' address with much interest; it is 

 written in a very pleasant style, and therefore we are sorry to dis- 

 agree with his views. H. B. W. 



III. — The Foraminifera figured by Ehrenberg. 



On the Nomenclature of the Foraminifera. Part XV. By 

 W. K. Parker, F.E.S., and Prof. T. Eupert Jones, F.E.S. 

 From the Annals Nat. Hist., ser. 4, vol. ix. and x. 1872. 



AMONGST the most enthusiastic observers and voluminous 

 writers on Foraminifera Dr. Ch. G. Ehrenberg stands pre- 

 eminent. From 1838 to the present day his observations have been 

 continuous, and the results have appeared in the Transactions and 

 Proceedings of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, and in his "Mikro- 

 geologie," a magnificent folio volume, published in 1854 under 

 royal patronage. The order of their nomenclatorial and biblio- 

 graphical work having brought Messrs. Parker and Jones to the 

 earliest of Dr. Ehrenberg's memoirs, they " entered on the somewhat 

 arduous and responsible labour of comparing and identifying as far 

 as possible all the Foraminifera he has so abundantly provided in 

 his successive publications." There seem to have been special diffi- 

 culties in this undertaking, for, with the highest respect for the 

 veteran naturalist, his critics state that they find "his identifications 

 of Foraminiferal species and marked varieties are often incorrect, 

 both among those of his own gathering, and of them with such as 

 had been figured or mentioned by D'Orbigny ; and not merely are 

 there difficulties as to species, but his generic groups are often 

 discordant with the names they bear, and sometimes comprise two 

 or more different genera," although the several forms are " often 

 grouped naturally on his plates." The figures, perfectly engraved 

 and showing exact and conscientious artistic labour, are drawn from 

 specimens in turpentine or Canada balsam, and seen by transmitted 

 light, with little or no perspective; and yet so truthful are they, 

 that a wide knowledge of similarly mounted Foraminifera enables 

 the rhizopodist to use them as " a storehouse of beautifully prepared 



