THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
8 
made accurate sections of these and of other forms 
of the polythalamia for the purpose of studying 
the number and forms of the chambers. 
Of these sections, we still have examples preser- 
ved in the historical collection of the geological 
museum, and by their means we are able to show 
to Italy the kind of investigation which has since 
acquired such great importance in consequence of 
the labours of the naturalists Munier-Chalmas and 
Schlumberger (4) who have been carrying out in- 
vestigations on the dimorphism of the foraminifera 
in France, and the researches of Fornasini who 
is recognised as an authority (5) on the subject 
not only by these authors, but also by all others 
who are engaged in this branch of study. 
After Bassi, Father Ambrogio Soldani of Prato- 
vecchio published at &iena in the year 1780 his 
celebrated observations on the Nautilus and am- 
monite regions of Tuscany, (6) and afterwards, by 
means of his great work “Testaceographia ac 
zoophytographia parva et microscopm” which was 
written 1789-1798, he rendered his own name 
immortal and secured to Italy the great honour of 
having been the first to encourage and develope 
the branch of zoology and paleontology that had 
been commenced a half a century before by 
means of the discovery which was made by the 
Bologna scientist. 
(Jf ) Munier-Chalmas — Sur de dimorphisme des 
Num.midites, Bull. Soc. qeol. de France , 3e Serie , 
T. VIII , p. 300 , Paris , 1880. 
Schlumberger — Sur le Biloculina depre&sa d'Orb. 
au point de vue du dimorphisme des foraminif e-res. 
Assoc, francaise pour VAvancement des Sciences. 
Congres de Rouen , 1883. 
Munier-Chalmas et Schlumberger — Nouvelles 
oberservation sur le dimorphisme des foraminif eres. 
Comptes rend us des seances de V Acad, des Sciences 
de Paris. Seance 28 Alai 1883 . 
(5) Schlumberger ■ — Note sur les Biloculina bul- 
loides d’Orb. et B. ringeus Lam. (Bull. Soc. Geol. 
France , 3e Serie, T. XV. p. 119) — 1887. 
Schlumberger — Note sur les Foraminif eres fos- 
siles de la province d Angola (Bull. Soc. Geol. 
France , 3e Serie, T. XVI) Paris, 1888. 
(6) Soldani A. Saggio orittografico ovvero osser- 
vazioni sopra le terre nautiliche ed ammonitiche 
della Toscana con appendice e catalogo dei piccoli 
testacci . Siena, 1780. 
Soldani A. — Testaceographice ac Zoophitogra- 
phice parva? et microscopicm Tomus primus. Senis 
mdcclxxxi x—Tomus secundus , mdccxcviii. 
For many years no Italian naturalist followed 
the brilliant example that had been set by Soldani. 
Micheiotti in 1841 (7) and Oronzio Gabriele 
Costa in 1855 endeavoured to revive the study of 
the foraminifera; and the latter devoted himself 
to the fauna of Southern Italy. (8) 
Almost contemporaneously Giuseppe Meneghini 
studied and arranged the more common of the 
tertiary foraminifera of Tuscany; while shortly 
after, his pupil Orazio Silvestri evinced a desire 
to continue the work of the great Soldani. 
But Silvestri, unfortunately, confined his atten- 
tion to a memoir on the Nodosarie, an exhaustive 
treatise that was not published until after the 
author had abandoned the study of the rhizopods, 
and at a time when he was devoting all of his 
energies to the study of chemistry. (9) 
During the period 1859-1879 Giuseppe Seguenza 
made known to us the foraminifera of Sicily, and 
in part also that of Calabria (10); while in 1880 
Guglielmo Terrigi figured the foraminifera of the 
tertiary formations of Rome (11). 
(7) Micheiotti G. — Saggio storico sui Rizopodi 
caratteristici dei terrem sopra. cretacei (Mem. Soc. 
Ital. Sc. vol. xxii ). 
(8) Costa 0. G.— Foraminif eri fossili delle 
marne terziarie di Messina. Mem. accad. Sc. di 
Napoli, vol. II. Napoli 1855. 
Costa 0. G. — Paleontologia del regno di Napoli 
Parte Ida. Atti Ac-c. Poniana. vol . VII. Napoli 
1856. 
(9) Silvestri 0. -Le Nodosa rie fossili net ter re- 
no subapennmo itahano e viventi nei mari d Italia. 
(Atti dell Ace. Gioenia di scienze nat. Sen. 3a. vol. 
VII) Catania. 1872. 
(16) Seguenza G. — Intorno ad, un v.uovo genere 
di Foraminif em fossile del terreno Miocenico di 
Messina. (Eco Feloritano, Giorn. di Sc. lett. ed 
arti, anno V. Sen. 2a.) Messina, 1859. 
Seguenza : G. — Prime ricerche intorno ai Rizo- 
pod i fossili delle argile pleistoceniche del dintorno 
di Catania (Atti Acc. Gioenia di Sc. nat. Sen. 2a. 
vol. XVIII.) Catania, 1862 . 
Seguenza G. — Descrizione dei Foraminif eri mo - 
notalamici delle marne mioceniche del distretto di 
Messina. Messina, 1862. 
Seguenza G. — Le Formaziom terziarie nella 
provincia di Reggio (Calabria). (Atti della R. 
Accad. clei Iincei, Serie 8a. Mem. classe Sc. f si eke 
e nat. vol. VI.) Roma , 1879. 
(11) Terrigi G. — Fauna vaticana a foraminiferi 
delle sabbie gialle nel plioceno subapennino supe- 
riore. ( AttSdel la Accad. pont. dei Nuovi line 
vol. XXXIII.) Roma, 1880. 
