259 
Jeading men of science of the day attest how eagerly he sought 
information on this subject. He seems to have consulted Darwin 
on the Aptychus theory, for the latter writes with his usual 
scientific caution, ‘‘ The problem about Aptychus, though I know 
nothing of it myself, has struck me during many years as an 
extremely curious one”; he suggests that slices should be 
made through the little globular bodies and their microscopical 
structure examined if it be preserved; and concludes by writing, 
“But the whole subject has gone much out of my mind and you 
probably are a far better judge than I am,” and then heartily 
wishes him success in all his future investigations. 
He carried on a long correspondence with Henry Carter of 
Budleigh Salterton, in the same year, 1879, and sent him some 
specimens of the egg-like bodies to examine. Of these Carter 
writes, “‘I have examined with high powers the supposed ‘ eggs’ 
you kindly sent me. The latter are some bits of sarcode which 
have become ferruginized, but from whence they come, or what 
they originally were, there is nothing to determine. They are of 
different sizes, often round and often agglomerated, but present 
no particular form and no structure. Still, they appear to me to 
have been originally organic, but once ferruginized the roundness 
and agglomeration become as much mineral as organic, so without 
form or structure this is all that can be safely said of these 
‘ego’ looking particles. Nitric acid does not dissolve them, but 
Oxalic acid renders them more transparent, or rather their frag- 
ments when crushed.” 
An interesting letter from Adam Sedgwick about this time, 
dated Cambridge, May 31st, 1870, may be given. “Tam much 
obliged to you for your kind letter and for the information 
conveyed by your papers, but above all for a sight of your 
magnificent Museum at Bath. The Lias fossils quite astonished 
me, and so did that most elaborate series of small fossils (includ- 
ing one or two Mammal specimens) which was new to me. I had 
heard of the fossils but never before seen them. I mean, ot 
R 
