88 The Vital Functions of the [^^^^^^^^^ttS' 
a volume of MS. figures and descriptions whicli I had the honour 
of presenting to the Koyal Microscopical Society of London last 
year, and relates to the accompanying sketch of a mature eight- 
chambered Textularian shell, each segment of which is studded with 
Coccoliths. The specimen referred to was obtained along with 
numerous others, from a depth of 1913 fathoms (upwards of two 
miles) between the coasts of Greenland and Labrador. 
" The eight cells constituting the Textularia are quite perfect, 
and increase in size in the usual manner, from the earliest-formed 
to the last-formed chamber. The Coccoliths on each chamber are 
placed in so regular an order as to leave no doubt whatever regard- 
ing their being component portions of each calcareous cell. Their 
structure, moreover, from the clear character of the entire shell, is 
distinctly visible even under a ^-inch lens. Textularise thus con- 
stituted are by no means so rare as I imagined when I wrote the 
notice of the discovery in ' The Annals ' (already referred to above). 
In every slide of certain soundings one or more generally occur. 
The material of this slide has been boiled in Liq. Potassas without 
any apparent effect on the Coccohths or Coccospheres. Close by, 
but detached from the Textularia here figured, are several perfect 
Coccospheres, by means of which a ready comparison and proof 
of the identity of the cells of the Foraminifer with them can be 
obtained." 
These are the facts, so far as they have as yet fallen under my 
observation. It remains for future more extended inquiry to deter- 
mine with certainty their true significance. 
Regarding the expediency of attempting to establish a new 
grade of animal life possessing characters as yet so obscure and 
indefinite as that on which Professor Huxley has conferred the 
name of Bathyhius* I beg with great deference to express my 
doubts. In the first place, because I can see no reason to deny to the 
structure called a Coccosphere, quite as independent an individuality 
as is observable in Thalassicolla or CoUosjohmra. In the second, 
because the very name Bathyhius, if its substance is supposed to 
have any immediate connection with the presence, the development, 
or the nutrition, of the lower forms of animal life which inhabit the 
ocean, is in direct antagonism to the occurrence of surface -living 
forms, for the nutrition and development of which a separate pro- 
vision would have to be made. And, in the third and last place, 
* * Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Scieuce,' October, 1868, p. 210 et postea. 
