part 2] SYRWGOTHYRIS AND SPIRIFERINA, 169 



between Carpenter, Davidson, King, and Meek, which, so far as 

 the three first-named authors are concerned, developed into what 

 was little less than a personal quarrel. 



Owing to its mode of preservation, Martin's specimen retained 

 no trace of the original shell -structure, for, as that author 

 observed : — 



' it is a complete change, evidently retaining the external shape and markings 

 of the original, which has been displaced by limestone similar to that in 

 which the fossil was lodged.' ([22] p. 46.) 



Winchell stated that in SyringotJiyris typa the shell was librous 

 and impunctate, but both Meek and Carpenter observed punctations 

 in specimens of that shell sent by Winchell himself. Carpenter, 

 •corroborated by Davidson, maintained that the shell of S. cuspidata 

 was impunctate ; but King, on the other hand, claimed to have seen 

 on the surface of a specimen from Tuam (Galway), in the collec- 

 tion at Queen's College, Galway, 'patches of faint slightly-raised 

 oval impressions ' which he compared with similar markings on 

 the surface of Dielasma hastata, known to be a punctate shell. 

 King was so certain that the shell of S. cuspidata was punctate, 

 while Carpenter so emphatically denied the presence of puncta?, 

 that Meek, who had proved the existence of punctations in an 

 example of S. cuspidata from Millicent, suggested the possibility 

 of there being two distinct forms included under one anil the 

 same specific name, of which one form possessed the internal 

 plates of SyringotJiyris and a punctate shell-structure, while the 

 other had no Syringothyroid characters and an impunctate shell. 

 Later, Carpenter himself admitted the existence of punctations 

 in some of the Millicent specimens, and inclined to the opinion 

 already expressed by Meek. 1 



The shell of Syringothyris was undoubtedly punctate, and the 

 reason for Carpenter's assertion to the contrary is not difficult to 

 find. In many fossils from the Carboniferous Limestone the shell- 

 substance has been recrystallized, and in such cases the external 

 appearance of the shell remains unaltered, but its intimate structure 

 is obliterated. Many specimens from Ireland and Derbyshire 



1 For this discussion, see the following papers : — W. King, ! Monograph of the 

 Permian Fossils of England ' Pal. Soc. 1850, p. 110 ; W. B. Carpenter, ' On the 

 Intimate Structure of the Shells of the Bracbiopoda' in Davidson [3] pp. 23- 

 40, and ' On the Minute Structure of certain Brachiopod Shells ' Ann. & Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. ser. 2, vol. xvii (1856) pp. 502-506 ; F. B. Meek, ' Observations on 



the Microscopic Shell-Structure of Spirifer cuspidatus Sowerby ' Proc. 



Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. ser. 2. vol. ix (1865) pp. 275-77 ; W. B. Carpenter, 

 'On the Perforate Structure of Spirifer cuspidatus ' Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist, 

 ser. 3, vol. xix (1867) pp. 29-31 ; F. B'. Meek, : On the Punctate Shell-Structure 

 of Syringothyris ' Amer. Journ. Sci. ser.. 2, vol. xliii (1867) pp. 407-408, also 

 Geol. Mag. 1867, p. 315 ; W. B. Carpenter, ' On the Shell-Structure of Spirifer 

 cuspidatus, & of Certain Allied Spiriferidte ' Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, 

 vol. xx (1867) pp. 68-73 ; W. King, ' Notes on some Perforated Palaeozoic 

 Spiriferidce ' Geol. Mag. 1867, pp. 253-56 ; and T. Davidson, ' Perforate & 

 Imperforate Bracbiopoda' Geol. Mag. 1867, pp. 311-13. 



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