196 
PROCEEDINGS 1841 — 1848. 
Phillips described tlie manner iu which he had obtained the micro- 
scopic animals which are the subject of his paper. He did this by 
examination of thin slices cut for the microscope, by incineration, 
by pulverising and washing such substances as chalk, or by distilling 
chemically some parts of a rock and leaving others for examination 
in a finely divided state, the result being that an immense number of 
foraminifera had been found in nearly all the formations. It had 
been ascertained that in the secondary strata below the chalk, par- 
ticularly in the oolites of Yorkshire and Stonesfield, many forami- 
nifera occur. They were found in the chalk, especially in the south 
of England, and in Tertiary Strata. The Mountain Limestone of 
Yorkshire consisted principal^ of two varieties, the oolitic and the 
compact. In the former, consisting of grains or ova, minute forami- 
nifera, bits of coral or encrinites were usually found in the centre of 
the grains. In the compact rocks he found precisely the same things, 
such as Foraminifera, small Milleporid^e, minute Cyathophylla, and 
Calamoporae, and other objects. In the brown clouded marbles of 
Beetham Fell they are so plentiful as to crowd the field of the micro- 
scope. In the Magnesian Limestone he had not been so successful. 
The compact parts of the rock seem to consist of earthy grains 
embedded in a cement of crystalline Carbonate of Lime, which is a 
very general character of the so-called earthy limestones. The nodular 
lias beds of Yorkshire he had not yet examined. Some of the oolitic 
beds of Yorkshire are remarkably rich in minute organisms, and 
numerous foraminifera, principally of the form of Textilaria, occur. 
These are frequently so numerous that a million may be found in one 
cubic inch. The oolitic grains in the north of England are separately 
suspended in a connected mass of clear crystalline CarbonatB of 
Lime, which is not a character found in other parts of the country. 
The Yorkshire Chalk contains minute foraminifera, especially of the 
genera Rotalia and Textilaria. He rarely found the spicules of 
sponges in this rock. The flints did not contain so many organisms 
as those of the south of England, but specimens with a peculiar 
cloudy, mottled, textural arrangement contain several kinds of minute 
structures, the so-called Xantliidia being the most remarkable. 
Speaking generally, Professor Phillips found that the greater the 
