PERFORATING BODIES FROM LOWER PALAEOZOIC ROCKS — ETHERIDGE. 1 '2 5 
they form a network, which spreads itself out in each layer, nearly 
parallel to its surface ; so that a large part of it comes into focus 
at the same time, in a section which passes in the plane of the 
lamina. 5 ’ And again, “I have frequently seen in them indications 
of a cellular origin, as if they had been formed by the coalescence 
of a number of cells arranged in a linear direction.” These tubes 
were observed in various Bivalves, particularly Lima scabrosa , 
Anomia ephippium , and in species of Ghama .* * * § Dr. Carpenter’s 
illustrations! convey an excellent idea of some of the tubes in our 
specimens. Carpenter evidently regarded the tubes as a portion 
of the Molluscan economy, but later, Kollicker pointed out that 
all the more or less horizontally spreading tubes described by 
Carpenter were those of parasites.! It is, however, only just to 
state that Dr. Carpenter was afterward conscious of this, and 
corrected § his earlier conclusions. 
In 1851 Mr. C. B. Rose investigated|| tubes perforating the 
scales of recent and fossil fish, and looked upon them as “infusorial 
parasites.” 
Quekett’s investigations of shell structure were equally success- 
ful, for on referring to the subnacreous layer of Anomia , Lima , 
and Area, he remarkedll : — “The tubes sometimes run in a vertical 
direction, but more frequently horizontally, between or upon the 
laminae of which the shell is composed ; they are almost always of 
uniform character, and very frequently branched, so that some of 
them present very much the appearance of confervas . . . Some 
of these tubes presented a beaded appearance, indicating that they 
are made up of cells like the tubular fibres of many fungi.” 
Quekett’s tubes** * * §§ are generally similar to those tubes permeating 
the Favosites , but perhaps a little too regular and too much 
branched, but not so others seen in a Rice-shell, ff 
In 1858, Mr. 0. Wedl described!! tubes traversing the tests of 
Brachiopoda, Univalves and Bivalves, but his illustrations do not 
bear particularly on those now under description. He likened 
them to the living Saprolegnia ferax , which he regarded as a 
Confervan. About the same time Kollicker showed §§ that similar 
* Ibid., 1847 (1848), p. 100. 
f Ibid., 1844 (1845), pi, ix., fig. 20, pi. xviii, fig. 4. 
t Proc. Roy. Soc. xx., 1859, p. 97 ; Quart. Journ. Micro. Soc., viii., 1860, 
pp. 172 and 181. 
§ The Microscope, 6th Edit., 1881, p. 382. 
|| Fide Duncan, (I have not seen the paper). 
IT Lectures on Histology, ii., 1854, p. 276. 
** Loc. cit., fig. 162. 
ff Loc. cit., fig. 163 B. 
JJ Sitz. K. K Akad. Wissensch., xxxiii., 28, 1858, p. 451. 
§§ Proc. Roy. Soc., x., 1859, pp. 96 - 98 ; Quart. Journ. Micro. Soc., viii., 
1860, pp. 172-181. 
