THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 

 No. 102. JUNE 187(3. 



XLIX. — Notes on Otto Ifahns ^^Microgeological Investigation 

 of Eozoon canadense," By William B. Carpenter, 

 M.D., F.K.S. * 



Having neither the time nor the ability for a full criticism of 

 the elaborate paper of Dr. Halin (its Mineralogical details 

 lying entirely outside the scope of my inquiries, which have 

 had reference only to Organic structure), I yet tliink it desi- 

 rable to specify some of the points as to which the author 

 seems to me to have failed to apprehend the probative value 

 of what has been advanced by Dr. Dawson and myself on the 

 other side. 



1. Dr. Hahn takes as the basis of his discussion the short 

 account of the structure of Eozoon contained in the fourth 



* The first sentence of the " Remarks " of Profs. King and Rowney in 

 the last Number of the ' Annals ' makes it necessary for me to explain 

 that I have not (as asserted by them) " withdrawn from the Eozoic con- 

 test," but that I simply decline to continue it with them. I can have 

 "no common basis of agreement " with any persons who accuse me of 

 inventing facts and manufacturing figures to support those inventions, 

 and who claim to pronounce ex cathedrd upon the " impossibilities " of the 

 structm'e of Foraminifera — -a group as to which my thirty years' study 

 has satisfied me that our knowledge is yet in its infancy. My personal 

 self-respect forbids me to allow the truthfulness of my statements, as to 

 what is clearly shown by specimens in my possession, to be called in 

 question by those who have not seen those specimens, though repeatedly 

 invited to inspect them ; whilst argument is obviously thrown away 

 upon antagonists who simply meet it by the assei'tion of their own or 

 some one else's infallibility. It will be seen in the conclusion of the 

 present " Note*,'" that facts are altogether opposed to the dicta of the 

 ' talway Prol'essors. 



Ann. & Mag. N.'IIisl. 8cr. 4. Vol. xvii. 28 



