148 
LETTER XII. 
NUMMULITES DISCORBIS ROTALITES LENTICULINA LITUOLA 
SPIROLINA MILIOLA RENULINA GYROGONITES. 
LXXXII. 2V ummvlites. A lenticular univalve, with an internal, 
discoidal, multilocular spire, divided into numerous chambers by trans- 
verse imperforated septa, and covered by several plates ; the paries of 
each turn being complicated, extended, and united on each side to 
the other disks. 
The extreme obscurity in which the nature of these bodies has been 
involved, almost to the present day, has occasioned the adoption of 
numerous vague and even absurd conjectures respecting their origin. 
By some they have been supposed to be the sports of nature, and bv 
others, seeds, the leaves of trees, and even piecesof money, miraculously 
converted to stone. A variety of terms have been employed to designate 
these substances. Thus, they have been named Helicites, from their 
spiral structure ; Phacites, from their resemblance to a lentil ; and Sali- 
cites, from the supposed resemblance of their sections to the leaf of the 
willow. Pliny is supposed to refer to this body, under the name of 
Daphnias, when he mentions that Zoroaster employed these substances 
in the cure of epilepsy. From their substance and external form, they 
have also been termed Lentes lapidece ; and from the appearances 
displayed by their sections, Lapides cumini, frumentarii, See. 
Scheuchzer was the first who concluded that these bodies ought to be 
ranked amongthe mineralized remains of animals, whichhadlivedbefore 
the flood. Having reached this point, still but little further progress 
was made, for some time, in the knowledge of the real nature of these 
