23 THE STORY OF THE EARTH AND MAN. 



creatures even more humble may not have preceded 

 Eozoon, since such humble organisms are known in 

 the present world. Attempts have often been made, 

 and very recently have been renewed with much affir- 

 mation of success, to prove that such low forms of life 

 may originate spontaneously from their materials in 

 the waters ; but so far these attempts merely prove 

 that the invisible germs of the lower animals and 

 plants exist everywhere, and that they have marvellous 

 powers of resisting extreme heat and other injurious 

 influences. We need not, therefore, be surprised if 

 even lower forms than Eozoon may have preceded 

 that creature, or if some of these may be found, like 

 the organisms said to live in modern boiling springs, 

 to have had the power of existing even at a time 

 when the ocean may have been almost in a state of 

 ebullition. Another problem is that of means of 

 subsistence for the Eozoic Foraminifera. A similar 

 problem exists in the case of the modern ocean, in 

 whose depths live multitudes of creatures, where, so 

 far as we know, vegetable matter, ordinarily the 

 basis of life, cannot exist in a living condition. It is 

 probable, however, from the researches of Dr. Wyville 

 Thompson, that this is to be accounted for by the 

 abundance of life at the surface and in the shallower 

 parts of the sea, and by the consequent diffusion 

 through the water of organic matter in an extremely 

 tenuous state, but yet sufficient to nourish these 

 creatures. The same may have been the case in the 

 Eozoic sea, where, judging from the vast amount of 



