194 
DR. carpenter’s RESEARCHES ON THE FORAMINIFERA. 
12. The state of preservation of the animal body of the Orbitolite, in the spirit- 
specirnens which I have examined, is so complete, as to leave me no room for hesi- 
tation in affirming- that it corresponds in every particular with the ‘sarcode’ which 
we have seen to liave been first described by M. Dujardin, as constituting the bodies 
of many of the lowest organisms, and especially as the component of those of the 
Rhizopoda. A small portion of this substance, sufficiently magnified to exhibit its 
nearly homogeneous jelly-like aspect, with minute granules and somewhat larger par- 
ticles scattered through it, is shown in Plate IV. fig. 2. Although it is so far decolo- 
rized in spirit-specimens as to present only a brownish hue, yet as specimens that 
have been gathered fresh and have been then dried, possess a reddish aspect, and as 
this is not due to the shelly substance, it may be presumed that the sarcode of the 
living Orbitolite has the same bright red colour as that of Rotalia and many other 
Foraminifera. The entire animal body (Plate IV. fig. 1) is composed of a numerous 
assemblage of minute segments, arranged at tolerably regular intervals in concentric 
zones around a sort of central ‘nucleus the segments composing each zone being 
united with each other by a continuous annular ‘stolon’ or band of sarcode, and 
being connected with those of the adjoining zones by peduncles of the same material. 
I have not met with the least indication that the sarcode is contained within any 
proper membrane ; and the absence of any such indication, notwithstanding the 
various manipulations to which I have subjected its segments, may be taken, I think, 
as strong negative evidence that it has no more existence in this animal, than it has 
in the species of Foraminifera which have been so well studied by M. Dujardin and 
Professor Schultze. Nor is there the slightest trace of distinct organs, either in the 
mass of sarcode which forms the central nucleus, or in that which constitutes each 
one of the surrounding segments ; and he would, I think, be a mere speculator, who 
should maintain the presence of a digestive cavity in any of these parts, or the exist- 
ence of an intestinal canal in the peduncular threads which connect them together. 
The homogeneity of the component substance of the central nucleus, and of the 
entire assemblage of multiple segments, seems, indeed, to be conclusively established 
by the following facts : — In all the spirit-specimens which I have examined, the cavi- 
ties of the outer zones are completely void, whilst those of the nucleus and of the 
inner zones are quite filled with their animal contents. This drawing-together of 
the soft body towards the centre, is evidenced also in many of the larger specimens 
which have been dried when collected in the living state, by the limitation of the red 
colour that indicates the presence of the sarcode, to the inner portion of the disk. 
In both cases it may be presumed that the animal matter has shrunk together, in the 
former through the corrugating action of the spirit, in the latter through desiccation. 
Now if the polypidom of a zoophyte be similarly treated, there is no such drawing 
together of the entire body, but each cell is found to contain the shrunk contents of 
its own polype-segment ; and this difference seems to me to indicate a complete dis- 
similarity in the characters of the two organisms. For it is obvious that the sub- 
