Dr. W. B. Carpenter on Eozoon Canadense. 135 



(3) that the ' proper M-all ' is structurally identical with the 

 asbestiform layer which frequently invests the grains of chondro- 

 dite — that, instead of belonging to the skeleton, as must be the 

 case on the eozoonal view, it is altogether independent of that 

 part, and forms, on the contrary, an integral portion of the 

 serpentine constituting the ' chamber-casts,' under the allomoi'phic 

 form of chrysotile, and that perfectly genuine specimens of it, 

 completely simidating casts of separated nummuline tubules, 

 occur in true fissures of the serpentine- granules ; (4) that the 

 ' canal-system ' is analogous to the imbedded crystallizations of 

 native silver and other similarly conditioned minerals, also to the 

 coralloids imbedded in Permian Magnesian Limestone ; that its 

 typical Grenville form occurs as metaxite, a chemically identical 

 mineral imbedded in saccharoidal calcite ; (5) that the type ex- 

 amples of ' casts of stolon-passages ' are isolated crystals appa- 

 rently of pyrosclerite. Furthermore, considering that there has 

 been a complete failure to explain the characters of the so-called 

 internal casts of the ' pseudopodial tubules ' and other ' passages ' 

 on the hypothesis of ordinary mechanical or chemical infiltration, 

 also bearing in mind the significant fact that the ' intermediate 

 skeleton,' in Irish and other varieties of eozoonal rock, contains 

 modified examples of the ' definite shapes ' more or less resembling 

 the crystalline aggregations and prismatic lumps in primary sac- 

 charoidal marbles — that eozoonal structure is only found in meta- 

 morphic rocks belonging to widely separated geological systems, 

 never in their unaltered sedimentary deposits, — taking all tliese 

 points into consideration, also the arguments and other evidences 

 contained in the present memoir, we feel the conclusion to be fully 

 established, that every one of the specialities which have been 

 diagnosed for Eozoon Canadense is solely and purely of crystalline 

 origin : in short, we hold, without the least i-eservation, that from 

 every available standing poiut^ — foraminiferal, mineralogical, che- 

 mical, and geological — the opposite view has been shown to be 

 utterly untenable." 



Considering that the Foraminiferal characters of Eozoon Cana- 

 dense had been unhesitatingly accepted by all tliose zoologists, 

 Continental as well as British, whose special acquaintance with 

 the group gave weight to their opinion, it might have been pru- 

 dent, as well as becoming, on the part of the Galway Professors, 

 to express themselves somewhat less confidently in regard to its 

 purely mineral origin. The case they made out would not have 

 lost any of its real strength if they had simply put forward their 

 facts as aflbrding valid gTounds for questioning the received doc- 

 trine ; and a way of escape would have been left for them, if the 

 progi'ess of research should happen to bring to light conclusive 

 evidence on the other side. 



Although such conclusive evidence is now producible, it maybe 

 well for me briefly to point out what I regard as the fundamental 

 fallacies in the argument of Professors King and Eowney. 



