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X. Researches on the Foramimfera. 
By William B. Carpenter, M.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. ^c. 
Received May 21, — Read June 14, 1855. 
PART I. 
CONTAINING GENERAL INTRODUCTION, AND MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS ORBITOLITES. 
page 
General Introduction 181 
Monograph of the Genus Orlitolites. 
Section I. History 187 
H. General Plan of Organization 193 
HI. Physiology 206 
IV. Variations 213 
V. Essential Characters, &c 223 
VI. Species 224 
VH. Concluding Remarks 226 
General Introduction. 
The tribe of Animals in regard to certain members of which I propose to offer to 
the Royal Society the results of my detailed investigations, is almost unknown, save 
by name, to many well-informed Naturalists ; and has only of late received even a 
small measure of that attention, which its zoological and its geological importance, 
and its physiological interest, may fairly claim for it. Of the bodies which are now, 
on account of their general conformity to a certain plan of organization, grouped 
together under the designation Foraminifera, the greater proportion, being spiral 
rnultilocular shells, were long associated with Nautili and Ammoriites, and were thus 
ranked as Cephalopodous Mollushs in the classifications of Lamarck and Cuvier; 
whilst a few others, bearing more resemblance to certain kinds of corals, seemed 
naturally to take their places among Zoophytes. 
Down to a comparatively recent period, scarcely anything has been known beyond 
the external characters presented by these testaceous or coral-like bodies ; their 
internal organization has been very imperfectly examined ; of their intimate structure, 
no attempt at elucidation has been made ; and as to the nature of the animals of which 
they are the skeletons, the grossest misapprehensions and errors have prevailed. And 
though many important steps have been recently made in this direction, it is obvious 
that the methods which have been proposed for the classification of the large number 
of forms (apparently distinct from each other) that have been collected, described, 
2 B 
MDCCCLVI. 
