THE EARLIER FORMS OF LIFE. 261 



and enormous aquatic growth of algoe, coccoliths, nullipores, and cor- 

 allines ? If we grant that the parasitic fungi could not exist for want 

 of their proper organic food of higher organization, there are still 

 enough forms remaining to take their place, and thus afford us a 

 symmetrical development of all the phases of vegetable growth in the 

 enormous periods when the simplest organic structures ruled the 

 world. 



Evidences of Animal Life. It has been argued by high au- 

 thority that the existence of carbonate and phosphate of lime suggests 

 the presence of animal life in the Laurentian seas, because at the 

 present day these mineral substances are principally derived from 

 organic secretions. The graphite may also have been partly of ani- 

 mal derivation. There is as much carbon in the Laurentian as in the 

 Paleozoic Carboniferous. But these indications need not be dwelt 

 upon, since recent discoveries have brought to light the actual relics 

 of protozoans preserved in stones of Laurentian age. These are so 

 convincing that the discussion of probabilities derived from rocks of 

 supposed organic origin need not be dwelt upon. The organism has 

 the name Eozoon Canadense, the dawn-animal, inhabiting the Cana- 

 dian district. 



Several names are connected with the discovery of this Eozoon 

 from Ontario and elsewhere. Dr. Wilson, of Perth, sent specimens of it 

 many years since to Sir William E. Logan, Director of Canadian Geo- 

 logical Survey, in which Dr. Sterry Hunt found a new hydrous sili- 

 cate, which he called Loganite. In 1858 J. McMullen brought speci- 

 mens which reminded Logan of the Stromatopora of the Silurian. 

 They were examined by various scientists, and in 1865 a composite 

 paper upon the geology, paleontology, and mineralogy of the fossil 

 appeared in the journal of the Geological Society of London, prepared 

 by Messrs. Logan, Dawson, Carpenter, and Hunt. Soon after Ven- 

 nor discovered other specimens in the Montalban of Tudor, Ontario; 

 Giimbel recognized it in both the Laurentian and Huronian in Bava- 

 ria; Bicknell and Burbank discovered it in Laurentian limestones at 

 Newbury and Chelmsford, Massachusetts ; and Edwards described it 

 from the Adirondacks in New York. Scientists have not universally 

 accepted the genuineness of this fossil. I will endeavor to present a 

 brief sketch of the nature of the organism before stating their objec- 

 tions. 



This animal structure belungs to the subkingdom Protozoa, a 

 unique and inferior group of organisms. These animals are distin- 

 guished by possessing no alimentary cavity, or, if a stomach be pres- 

 ent, it is not bounded by any walls. The three divisions, using the 

 classification adopted by Dawson, are: the Rhizopods, Sponges, and 

 Infusoria. The first is the lowest, including all the sarcodous ani- 

 mals whose only external organs are pseudopodia. The rhizopods 

 are divided into the Reticularia or Foraminifera, possessing thread- 



