74 _ Biographical Notice of Alcide D’Orbigny. 
the Nautilus Pompilius,—or his note on the genus Caprina, his — 
ta view of the class Cephalopoda, his memoir upon a second — 
living species of the family of Crinoids, to which he gave the 
generic name Holopus, and many other of his papers, are suffi: — 
cient proofs of his great knowledge of, and accurate judgment — 
upon, almost all branches of natural history; but others speak 
the language of a philosopher on such subjects. . 
Every one will doubtless remember the different opinions — 
which were once entertained on the true position, amongst or 
ganized beings, of the Foraminifera, some naturalists having, — 
from the resemblance of form, allotted them to the Cephalopoda. 
After a careful examination of the animal portion as well as of 4, 
the shelly covering of these minute, often microscopical, bodies, — 
he disproved the earlier notion of their alliance to the Cephalo- 
pods, which he had himself at first adopted, and proposed a 
general classification of the Foraminifera, founded upon the form 
of their shells, placing them amongst the Radiata, close to the 
olyps. In this great and important inquiry he described and 
inifera that he confined his attention, as he described and figured : 
54 species from the white chalk of the Paris basin, all, with the 
exception of three or four, new, and then again those which had 
: Genera. Species. 
Famoznc strata 2. So. ce 139520. Vea 1 
wuraemic strata 22 Pe, Soe a 20 
Cretaceous strata ........... Be SU ec es 280 
Tethary strata 0. oui SF oats 450 
Existing epoch ........... OO ccs ee 1000 
lina, M. D’Orbigny named as not having been as yet discover 
vibes fossil state; and he gave the following view of the cl 
distribution of the Foraminifera, which also cannot fail to 
