Examination of " Eozoon." 279 



continuously both roofs and walls. A few exceptional appear- 

 ances occur : a bundle of tubules intersects two or three layers 

 (one seems to be interpolated) in a mass of asbestine shell- 

 substance, but without any chambers. The absence of the 

 latter is evidently due to their being cut off from the section. 



Furnished with what may be deemed sufficient data, we 

 may now pause to take into consideration the figure brought 

 forward by Carpenter, " after D'Archiac and Haime." 



What does the figure show as it appears ? — or, what are we 

 to understand from it, as described by Dr. Carpenter ? Evi- 

 dently (1st) that the layers are everywhere lineated; and 

 (2nd) that the lineation is to be taken as representing tubules, 

 not only in the roof of the chambers, but as ''^passing hy'''' their 

 ends or sides. Now we unreservedly declare that no section 

 of a nummulite can show in reality, except accidentally, any 

 thing of the kind. 



Every chamber, as we have shown, is circumscribed by 

 walls. The lineations adjoining ox passing hy the ends of the 

 chambers, represented by D'Archiac and Haime, must, if 

 they were really present in the specimen, belong to the walls 

 and their extensions ; so that instead of indicating the pre- 

 sence of tubules, they can only represent asbestine divisional 

 lines. The French savans may not have been acquainted with 

 the difference between the walls including theii- extensions and 

 the roofs of the chambers (we are not able to consult their 

 work) : if this were the case, much could be said in their 

 favour. But nothing of the kind can be urged on the side of 

 Dr. Carpenter ; who, with all the modern appliances at his 

 command for obtaining, if necessary, the information, and 

 more especially after having, on different occasions, described 

 and figui-ed the walls as " pillars " formed of " solid substance 

 not perforated by tubuli," deliberately brings forward this 

 case, declaring oracularly that it is the "^jrectse coimterpart 

 to " what has been admitted by himself to be an anomalous fact ^ 

 and which is regarded by Mr. Carter and ourselves as " incom- 

 patible with nummuline tubulation" *. 



* AYe have just had the opportunity of reading Mr. Carter's valuable 

 communication in the current number of the 'Annals,' "On the Strife of 

 Foramiuiferous Tests." The general structure of the numnmlite he has 

 sketched out makes it clear that there is nothing in "Eozoon " answering 

 (except mere simulutiona) to any thing in a foraminiferal shell. Mr. 

 Carter's stricc fonu our dshrsfii/e Ktrueture, which it would appear is not 

 uncommon amtmg fnssili/.rd uunnuulids. We cannot bring ourselves to 

 accept unconditionally the view that " the stria) are the lines of cleavage," 

 although a nmuber of considerations could be urged in its favour : the 

 close conformity in direction between the stria) and the adjoining tubula- 

 tion seems to be relative, and therefore militating against it ; while, on 



