OCEANIC CIRCULATION. 213 



by Arago as 'fort vive, et, en apparence du moins, 

 quelque peu passionnee.' The question, again, whether 

 the ' Eozoon Canadense ' is a true * Rhizopod,' though 

 not altogether removed from the region of hard words, 

 might appear to be unlikely to excite warlike emotions ; 

 yet there has been some very pretty fighting over it. 

 The solar corona has in like manner given occasion for 

 rather strong writing; and if, on the one hand, the 

 supporters of a lately-abandoned theory said of their 

 opponents that 'they made themselves ridiculous,' 

 these, in their turn, at times used a tone reminding 

 one of the scholar who said of a rival, * May God con- 

 found him for his theory of the Irregular Verbs : ' yet 

 the corona seems at a first view rather calculated to 

 produce a sedative effect than to excite unphilosophic 

 wrath. The subject of oceanic circulation would appear 

 to belong to the class of questions here considered. 



The very name of the Grulf Stream is to some phy- 

 sical geographers as a red cloth is to a bull. Even Sir 

 John Herschel, usually placidity itself, was moved when 

 he spoke on this point. But though he and Maury 

 grew warm enough in its discussion, their warmth wa$ 

 ice-cold compared with the fire of more recent dis- 

 putants. We have before us the latest contribution to the 

 subject, a rather ponderous essay in one of our leading 

 quarterlies ; and herein we find pleasing references to 

 the ' stupidities ' of one set of opponents, the ' shallow 

 nonsense ' of a second, ' the wrong-headedness ' of a 

 third, with other similar amenities. More than once 



