WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON l6l 



We are still more deeply impressed with this when we bring 

 into view the great physical changes which have occurred since 

 the dawn of life. When we consider that the skeletons of 

 Eozoon contribute to form the oldest hills of our continents ; 

 that they have been sealed up in solid marble, and that they 

 are associated with hard crystalline rocks contorted in the 

 most fantastic manner ; that these rocks have almost from the 

 beginning of geological time been undergoing waste to supply 

 the material of new formations ; that they have witnessed in- 

 numerable subsidences and elevations of the continents ; and 

 that the greatest mountain chains of the earth have been built 

 up from the sea since Eozoon began to exist, — we acquire a 

 most profound impression of the persistence of the lower forms 

 of animal life, and know that mountains may be removed and 

 continents swept away and replaced, before the least of the 

 humble gelatinous Protozoa can finally perish. Life may be 

 a fleeting thing in the individual, but as handed down through 

 successive generations of beings, and as a constant animating 

 power in successive organisms, it appears, like its Creator, 

 eternal. 



This leads to another and very serious question. How long 

 did lineal descendants of Eozoon exist, and do they still exist ? 

 We may for the present consider this question apart from ideas 

 of derivation and elevation into higher planes of existence. 

 Eozoon as a species, and even as a genus, may cease to exist 

 with the Eozoic age, and we have no evidence whatever that 

 any succeeding creatures are its modified descendants. As far 

 as their structures inform us, they may as much claim to be 

 original creations as Eozoon itself. Still descendants of Eozoon 

 may have continued to exist, though we have not yet met with 

 them. I should not be surprised to hear of a veritable speci- 

 men being some day dredged alive in the Atlantic or the 

 Pacific. It is also to be observed that in animals so simple as 

 this many varieties may appear, widely different from the 



