106 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. ix- 



serpentine, but that it occurs also mineralized with loganite, 

 pyroxene, dolomite, or even earthy limestone, though the serpen- 

 tinous specimens have attracted the most attention, owing to 

 their beauty and abundance in certain localities. The biologists 

 on the other hand, even those who are somewhat familiar with 

 foraminif'eral organisms, are little acquainted with the appearance 

 of these when mineralized with silicates, traversed with minute 

 mineral veins, faulted, crushed and partly defaced, as is the case 

 with most specimens of Eozoon. Nor are they willing to admit 

 the possibility that these ancient organisms may have presented 

 a much more generalized and less definite structure than their 

 modern successors. Worse, perhaps, than all these, is the cir- 

 cumstances that dealers and injudicious amateurs have intervened, 

 and have circulated specimens of Eozoon^ in which the structure 

 is too imperfectly preserved to admit of its recognition, or even 

 mere fragments of serpentinous limestone, without any structure 

 whatever. I have seen in the collections of dealers and even in 

 public museums, specimens labelled '■'■Eozoon Canadense^^ which 

 have as little claim to that designation as a chip of limestone 

 has to be called a coral or a crinoid. 



The memoir of Professor Mobius affords illustrations of some 

 of these difficulties in the study of Eozoon. Professor Mobius 

 is a zoologist, a good microscopist, fairly acquainted with 

 modern foraminifera, and a conscientious observer ; but he 

 has had no means of knowing the geological relations and mode 

 of occurrence of Eozoon, and he has had access merely to a 

 limited number of specimens mineralized with serpentine. These 

 he has elaborately studied, and has made careful drawings of 

 portions of their structures, and has described these with some 

 degree of accuracy; and his memoir has been profusely illus- 

 trated with figures on a large scale. This, and the fact of the 

 memoir appearing where it does, convey the impression of an 

 exhaustive study of the object, and since the conclusion is ad- 

 verse to the organic character of Eozoon, this paper may be 

 expected, in the opinion of many not fully acquainted with the 

 evidence, to be resrarded as a final decision airainst its animal 

 nature. Yet, however commendable the researches of Mobius 

 may be, when viewed as the studies of a naturalist desirous of 

 satisfying himself on the evidence of the material he may have 

 at command, they furnish only another illustration of partial 

 and imperfect investigation, quite unreliable as a verdict on the 



