288 Professors King and Rowney on " Eozoon." 



It will be understood from the title of our paper that we 

 have restricted ourselves chiefly to the speciality which, ad- 

 mittedly, Dr. Carpenter ought to be thoroughly conversant 

 with. Fully examined from his own special stand-point, the 

 " nummuline layer" or " feature by which Eozoon is capable 

 of being most unmistakably established" turns out to be a 

 Foraminiferal impossihility ; while, as made known by the 

 twenty-one points of our summary, geology, mineralogy, and 

 chemistry irresistibly relegate it to the domain of inorganic 

 nature. Let us hope, for the reputation of geology, which 

 owes so much to the correlative sciences, that in future its 

 labourers will be severely critical on new doctrines — that 

 before accepting them they will give more weight and con- 

 sideration to opposing evidences belonging to mineralogy and 

 chemistry ; otherwise the noble legacy which they have re- 

 ceived from a generation that has scarcely passed away will 

 assuredly fall a prey to sensational doctrines, based on mere 

 appearances and prohahilities uncorrelatively and isolatedly 

 interpreted in opposition to the teaching of a wide range of 

 established facts. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XIX. 



lig. 1. Vertical section of the slieU-layers of JVurmnuUtes Icevigatus, show- 

 ing the chambers (ci, a x), each with a tubulated roof (b), and 

 non-tubular walls (c) including their extensions (c x) : as seen 

 magnified 120 diameters. 



Fig. 2. Vertical section of Nummulites broachensis (Carter). (The letters 

 refer to the same parts as in fig. 1.) 



Fig. 3. Section (decalcified) of Eozoon canadense, showing " chamber- 

 casts" (a) in serpentine, "intermediate skeleton" (rZ) in calcite 

 (dissolved out by decalcification), and " nummuline wall " (b) in 

 its typical condition (the aciculse were separated by calcitic spaces) 

 where the letter is opposite, but passing gradualhj into chryso- 

 tile (c), which forms an intersecting vein in the serpentine : as 

 seen magnified 60 diameters. 



Fig. 4. Section (decalcified) of " Fozoon canadense " (from same specimen 

 as the last), showing " nummuline wall " (b) in its typical con- 

 dition, on the left side, but gi-aduaUy passing into the closely 

 co7npacted condition (unseparated except by mere divisional lines) 

 above letter a. 



Fig. 5. Section of same, showing the side of the "nummuline wall" 

 next to the serpentine (a) with opomigs, to prove that it is only 

 differentiated from the latter by its acicular or fibrous structure ; 

 the serpentine in the openings remaining structurally unaltered : 

 as seen magnified 210 diameters. 



Fig. 6. Approximate copy, enlarged, of Dr. Carpenter's representation of 

 a portion of the " nummuline wall " of " Eozoon canadense,'' which 

 he has represented bounded by two continuous lines under the 

 belief that it is a " calcareous lamella," and thus differentiated 

 from the serpentine "chamber-cast" (situated on the side a). 



