34 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



the cause began a rapid decline, and, mainly owing 

 to the papers of King and Rowney, it was soon 

 narrowed to a struggle between the mineralogists on 

 the one hand and the biologists on the other. During 

 the next few years defections grew apace, and in 1879 

 the most serious blow was at hand. Professor Karl 

 A. Moebius, the eminent German authority on the 

 Rhizopoda, had been much struck by the resemblance 

 of Eozoon to a new genus of foraminifera which he 

 had found in 1874 on the coral reefs of Mauritius, and 

 had named Carpentaria rhaphidodendron : impressed 

 with the value of his discovery, as elucidating and 

 confirming the organic nature of Eozoon, he resolved 

 to fling himself into the discussion, re-examine the 

 whole of the evidence, and then, by the aid of his 



amined the vast series of the most typical forms 

 placed at his disposal, he gradually lost faith and 

 finally lapsed into the ranks of their opponents. It 

 was the story of Balaam over again ; he had set out 

 on his journey to curse, but he had blessed — and 

 blessed with a weight of authority and power which 

 no other man possessed. From that hour Eozoonism 

 was doomed, and if it still lingers in the minds of a 

 few geologists it is different from the creed militant 

 of fifteen years ago. 



But it is time to turn from the controversy to 

 Eozoon itself; but, before doing so, however, it is 

 necessary to make two digressions, first to examine 

 the stratigraphical relations of the rock in which it 

 occurs, and secondly to examine the shell structure of 



Fig. 38. — Section at Cote St. Pierre (Dawson), a, gneiss band 

 b, limestone with eozoon band, e ; c, diorite and gneiss. 



Fig. 39- — Diagram of vitreous foraminifera, showing double 

 septa (b, b), stolon passages {a, a,) and intermediate skeleton (<r). 



sZ 



u>n 



s 









6 



Fig. 40. — Section of part of 'Calcarina, showing tubulated 

 proper walls (10, w) and canal system through intermediate 

 skeleton (jr.) 



Fig. 41.— Section of Nummulina lavigata, showing canal 

 system of septa [s). 



new genus, to demolish all opposition and establish 

 for ever the " animalitat " of Eozoon. He an- 

 nounced his intention, and invited geologists to send 

 him specimens. Eozoonists promptly complied with 

 his request, and materials from all parts were poured 

 upon him. Credner, of Leipzig ; Hochstetter, of 

 Vienna ; Du Bois Raymond, of Berlin, and Dawson, of 

 Montreal, all forwarded him their specimens. Eozoon 

 Bavaricum he received from Fritsch, and Gumbel's 

 collection from Sadebeck ; Leydig, of Bonn, sent those 

 from the cabinet of Max Schultze, while Carpenter 

 entrusted him with a large number of his choicest 

 specimens, some of which he had never before allowed 

 to leave his possession. From these, Eozoonists 

 expected that Moebius would adduce an array of 

 facts and arguments that would place their theory 

 beyond dispute, and correspondingly bitter was their 

 disappointment when they learned that as he ex- 



the foraminifera in order to recognise the morpho- 

 logical relationship supposed to exist between them. 



The Laurentian rocks, largely developed in North 

 America, typically in Canada, are a vast series of 

 metamorphic rocks, divided into two groups. The 

 lower, some 20,000 feet in thickness, is composed 

 entirely of metamorphic rocks, mainly gneiss and 

 mica schist, interstratified with which are great beds 

 of quartz and crystalline limestone, one of which is as 

 much as 1500 feet thick. Distributed through it are 

 conglomerates and beds of magnetic and specular iron 

 ore, and veins and beds of graphite which Dawson 

 estimates would equal in quantity the coal seams of 

 an equal area of the carboniferous rocks. The upper 

 series, of some 10,000 feet of stratified crystalline 

 rocks, mainly gneisses and felspathic rocks, character- 

 ised by the abundance of labradorite, lies uncon- 

 formably upon it. It is in the lower series that 



