THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 

 No. 100. APRIL 1876. 



XXIV. — Is there such a thing as Eozoon cauadense '? 

 A Microgeological Investigation. By Otto Hahn*. 



I. 



At the time when the microscope began to find a more ex- 

 tended application in geology, came also the discovery of the 

 " Dawn animal" — Eozoon canade7ise,sis it has since been called. 

 How great was the delight excited when it was supposed that 

 at length the beginning of organic creation had been found ! 

 The Darwinian theory wanted the corner-stone ; and there it 

 was. As by a miracle, the primajval slime {UrschUim) had 

 presented itself in a mass of serpentine limestone, which ap- 

 peared just as the slime itself must have appeared ; the film, 

 microscopic tubes of 0*002 millira. diameter were still there 

 wonderfully beautiful ; and, as Carpenter says : — " a precise 

 model of the most ancient animal of which we have any 

 knowledge, notwithstanding the extreme softness and tenuity 

 of its substance, is presented to us with a completeness which 

 is scarcely even approached in any later fossil." 



Who could help being pleased at seeing with his own eye 

 tliis firstling of creation ? 



In a time of general excitement and enthusiasm it is difficult 

 to preserve mental quietude. I have, however, attempted to 



• Translated by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S., from a separate impression of 

 the Memoir in the ' Wiirttembergische naturwissenschaftliche Jahres- 

 hefte,' 187G. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. xvii. 18 



