IV 
THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER 
Mr. Hollick direct from the specimens ; and it is sufficient to add that this has been done 
with his customary fidelity. 
I would that there were more to show for so large an amount of friendly interest and 
co-operation. The Report, lengthy though it appears, has no pretence to completeness, 
indeed a lifetime might be spent upon the collections of which it treats without exhausting 
their points of interest. But in a publication of this sort there are certain limits as to time 
which must be respected ; and the present volume is offered as an instalment in which 
the details of the subject have been pursued as far as has been practicable in the time 
that has elapsed since the return of the Expedition. The method of treatment has been 
made as comprehensive as possible, in the hope that the results may be of service as a 
starting-point for further research. 
It is perhaps needful to mention that the drawing of the specimens was commenced 
at a very early stage of the work, and that a considerable number of the plates had been 
lithographed and printed off before the whole of the material had been fully examined. 
By no other plan could serious delay have been avoided. For the same reason the 
various sections of the manuscript were consigned to the printers as soon as they were 
completed. There are many disadvantages attending this method of proceeding, the 
most serious of which is the liability to discrepancies between the earlier and later 
portions of the work, owing to the progress of research in the interval. In the present 
case the discrepancies happen to be of comparatively slight practical importance. The 
most noticeable are in connection with the generic names inscribed on the plates, which 
in a few instances do not exactly correspond with the heading of the “ Explanation, 55 
the latter having been printed at a much later date than the plates themselves. The 
inconsistencies in the letterpress due to similar causes appear to be confined to certain 
small matters of nomenclature, which are enumerated with the “Errata.” 
The term Foraminiferes was originally employed by d’Orbigny in the Tableau 
methodique de la classe des Cephalopodes, 1 at a time when the Foraminifera, or at least 
a considerable section of them, were looked upon as microscopic Mollusca. In the work 
alluded to, the class Cephalopodes was divided into three Orders — I. Cryptodibranches ; 
II. Siphoniferes ; III. Foraminiferes ; and of these the last two, which comprised 
Mollusca with chambered shells, were respectively distinguished, — the Siphoniferes by 
possessing a continuous central tube or siphon, the Foraminiferes by having chambers 
1 Annales des Sciences Naturelles, vol. vii., 1826, p. 245. 
“ IHe Ordre. — Foraminiferes, Nob.; Asiphonoides, de Haan. 
“ Caract. essent . — Un test polythalame totalement interne; derniere cloison terminate ; point de siphon, mais 
settlement tine ou plusiettrs ouvertures donnant communication d’une loge a rautre.” 
