Dr. Dawsoti's ' Dawn of Life.'' 375 



or calc-scliist," which, in reference to the associated metamor- 

 phic rocks, is ^^comparatively unaltered " (Logan). "Eozoonal 

 features " are required from the " ordinary unaltered deposits " 

 belonging to systems intermediate to the Laurentian and the 

 Liassic ; but sponges have been produced ! Why have the 

 " eozoonal features " found in the Lower Silurian (Conneraara) 

 metamorphic rocks been ignored? The concluding part of 

 the answer is catchy logic, irrelevant to the point which 

 developed it, and, besides being paralleled in some other " short 

 answers," forms an appropriate /naZe to the entire series. 



9. " Systematic Position o/'Eozoon." 



Our last paper — " 'Eozoon^ examined chiefly from a Fora- 

 miniferal Stand-point," compelled Dr. Carpenter, unable to 

 show that our evidences did not prove the " Dawn animal " to 

 be a foraminiferal impossibility, to take refuge under the phrase 

 (the parentage of which, by-the-by, is erroneously given) — 

 " there is no end to the possibilities of Nature." Any naturalist 

 knows what this phrase refers to ; but it does not admit of 

 impossibilities — as, for example, a " canal-system " abutting 

 directly against the under and affixed side of the "nummuline 

 layer," instead of passing direct out to the surface of the 

 organism ; a pseudopodial " cell-wall " situated on the under- 

 side of a chamber, and directly implanted on the " interme- 

 diate skeleton," thereby rendering the protrusion of the pseudo- 

 pods into the surrounding water, or into any vacancy, an im- 

 possibility. It is a folly attempting to get over these things 

 by calling them " anomalies ;" they are foraminiferal impossi- 

 bilities ; and we cannot but commend Dr. Carpenter's judg- 

 ment in relinquishing all attempt to make them otherwise in 

 his "Final Note." 



But is not this inability to make its features otherwise than 

 impossibilities a severe satire on the " systematic position of 

 Eozoon'''' as set forth by Dr. Dawson, — that its "place will be in 

 the family Nummulinidoe or between this and Globigerinidcej 

 and thus belonging to the highest family in the highest sub- 

 order of the lowest class of animals " ? 



10. Natural Theology of the Eozoic doctrine. 



This is the most daring bid which Eozoonism in its latest 

 fancies has made for " unscientific " favour. It is now declared 

 that " the dawn animal is the earliest known representative 

 on our planet of those wondrous powers of animal life which 

 culminate and unite themselves with the spirit world in man 

 himself;" and that " if we believe in a Creator, we shall feel 



