Lign. 23:—The body of a recent animalcule allied to the Rotalia, deprived of its shell; highly magnified.
Not only the characters of fossil shells of such infinite minuteness can be revealed by the microscope, but even the soft parts of the animalcules which inhabited them; for these are occasionally preserved, and may be demonstrated with as much distinctness as the recent examples.[AJ] In flint the soft parts of Rotaliæ, Textulariæ, &c., are abundant, and may be seen, with but little preparation, like insects in amber: the specimen figured in [Lign. 12, p. 39], shews the body of a Rotalia well defined; the only preparation this atom of flint has undergone, is immersion in Canada balsam. To detect such delicate structures in chalk requires, however, some experience in microscopic manipulation, as the calcareous matter must be dissolved in hydrochloric acid, and the animal substance separated from the residuum.[AK]
[AJ] See 'Wonders of Geology,' 6th Edit., p. 322.
[AK] See my 'Memoir on the fossil remains of the soft parts of Foraminifera in Chalk, &c.' Philosophical Transactions, 1846, p. 465.
[Note VII.] [Page 43.] Isle of Wight Pebbles.
ISLE OF WIGHT PEBBLES.