638 THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. VI. 



structure, and the inner surface is covered with oscula, or 

 little openings. 



33. Ventriculites of the Chalk. — A very elegant 

 and interesting family of Zoophytes, described by me in 

 an early memoir (published in the " Linnasan Transactions," 

 Vol. xi.), and subsequently named Ventriculites, occurs 

 in the Sussex and Wiltshire chalk in such numbers, 

 and under such dissimilar forms, as to require a passing 

 notice in this place ; especially as the subject has re- 

 cently been investigated by a gentleman of distinguished 

 ability.* After mature reflection, and the re-examina- 

 tion of such specimens as are within my reach, I see 

 no reason whatever to alter a single word in the fol- 

 lowing description, taken from my late work on fossil 

 remains.f 



" The original form of the Yentriculite was that of a funnel, or 

 hollow inverted cone, terminating in a point at the base, whence 

 numerous fibres proceed, by which it was attached to other bodies. 

 The outer integument was reticulated — that is, disposed in meshes 

 like net-work, and the inner surface was studded over with regular 

 openings ; the orifices of tubular cells, each of which was probably 

 occupied by a polype. The substance of the polyparium, or frame-work, 

 of this aggregation of animalcules, appears to have been analogous to 

 that of the soft alcyonia, and to have possessed a common irritability, 



* On the Ventriculidse of the Chalk, by J. Toulmin Smith, 

 Esq.— A nn. Nat. Hist No. 131, p. 73. 



I cannot admit the correctness of Mr. Toulmin Smith's interpre- 

 tation of the appearances described in the text ; of the accuracy of 

 his beautiful microscopic examination of the intimate tissue of these 

 zoophytes I have no doubt ; and will only remark, that the octa- 

 hedral form, represented as that assumed by the inosculating fibres 

 of the membrane of the Ventriculidae (Ann. Nat. Hist. pi. vii. fig. 8), 

 is a very extraordinary anomaly in animal structures. 



f Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 274. The figures in Lign. 60, 

 61, and 62, of that work, though on a small scale, are accurate repre- 

 sentations of the originals. 



