38 JOURNAL OF THE [January, 



tion. If the specimens had been obtained from the altered rocks of the 

 Lower Silurian series, there would have been little hesitation in pronounc- 

 ing them to be fossils." (King and Rowney. An old chapter of the Geol. 

 Rec, pp. ix, X, 1881.) 



Macalister (Dr.), A. President's Address. Journ. Roy. Geol. 

 Soc. Ireland., new ser., vol. iii, p. loi, 1873. 



A paragraph devoted to the '' Eozoon controversy," and pronounced 

 from the President's Chair of Royal Geological Society of Ireland, requires 

 some little notice. Referring to some memoirs (not named), it is stated 

 that they " occasioned a controversy which, if it did nothing else, turned 

 some attention to the study of micro-petrography, and some at least of the 

 writers displayed a very considerable practical ignorance not only of the 

 appearance of sections of large foraminifera, but also of sections of common 

 forms of rock and of the interpretation of rock-forms as seen by the 

 microscope. With a larger experience of micro-petrography will come, I 

 believe, a full conviction of the true organic nature of Eozoon Canadense.'' 

 It is now eight years since these remarks were made ; and undeniably 

 their author had taken considerable pains to master the bibliography of 

 points connected with the subject-matter he touched upon ; it is there- 

 fore to be assumed that Dr. Macalister still takes a deep interest therein, 

 also that he is perfectly aware his "full conviction" has not yet been 

 realized ; hence we would urge on him to endeavour himself to bring about 

 the outcome which he so confidently predicted in his " Address." (King 

 and Rowney. An old chapter of the Geol. Rec, p. xxx, 1881.) 



Moore, C. On the Organic Nature of Eozoon Canadense. 

 Brit. Assoc. Meeting, Swafisea, pp. 582, 583, 1880. 



" Possessed of only two slices, and two small blocks weighing but 

 twelve ounces, both in their original condition," the writer detected in 

 "separated twenty grains" belonging thereto " a clear siliceous-looking 

 fibroid growth, scarcely more substantial than the motes or fibres seen 

 floating in the sunbeam ;" while "a close examination occasionally re- 

 vealed another form not thicker than a spider's web, like mycelium growth 

 of the present day," also what he takes to be " ova or gemmules" and a 

 coloured filmy membrane, etc. We leave these evidences of organic 

 structure to be appreciated by Eozoonists. (King and Rowney. An old 

 chapter of the Geol. Rec, p. Hi, 1881.) 



Nicholson, H. A. Supposed Laurentian Fossil. Ann., and 

 Mag., Nat. Hist. ser. 4, vol. xviii, p. 75, 1876. 



A letter withdrawing the statement that the specimens noticed in his 

 former letter " were essentially calcarious in their composition," as " upon 

 investigation, the specimens proved to be composed of alternating layers 

 of felspar and silica." The writer concludes with a remark by which he 

 identifies himself with Dr. Carpenter mYiis, ipse dixit: — " Whether the 

 peculiar arrangement of the minerals which constitute these specimens can 



