THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 613 



selves has led Dr. Carpenter and his coadjutors to come 

 to such conclusions, it seems more than probable that 

 we are entitled to rank these organisms amongst the 

 ephemeromorphs, Dr, Carpenter finds, moreover, that 

 similar types and similar varieties from these types are 

 to be met with in geological formations existing as 

 far back as the upper Triassic rocks ; and he therefore 

 comes to the usual conclusion from such facts — viz. 

 that the forms of Foraminifera existing at the bottom 

 of our ocean in the present day, are the lineal de- 

 scendants of those simpler forms which lived, ages and 

 a2;es aw, in the oceans existing: when the Triassic 

 rocks were being formed. 



This view, however, as I have previously stated^, 

 seems to me much less probable than the supposition 

 which now lies open to us. We may imagine, for 

 instance, that the sum-total of conditions at the bottom 

 of a deep ocean have probably undergone very slight vari- 

 ations since Triassic times-, and that the lower forms of 



^ See p. 103. 



2 And, as before stated (p. 502), many facts seem to show that in the 

 very lowest organisms the ' internal forces ' are so powerful as to make 

 these organisms comparatively impervious to the influence of any ordinaiy 

 amount of difference in external conditions. How else are we to account 

 for the similarity of Bacteria and Tonilse over all parts of the world and 

 under most various conditions; and for th^ fact that the most rudi- 

 mentary Fungi, Algae, and Lichens are also met with in all regions of 

 the earth — presenting modifications, it is true, amongst themselves in 

 each separate place, though it seems to make comparatively little differ- 

 ence whether this place be in the neighbourhood of the equator or of 

 the pole ? 



