INTRODUCTION. 11 



relation of these two minerals to each, other, while such replace- 

 ment as does occur is in the other direction, or the change of 

 calcite into serpentine, as evidenced by the state of preservation 

 of some specimens of Eozoon, above referred to " ! Had Dr. 

 Dawson been aware that chrysotile is a fibrous form of ser- 

 pentine, and that its fibres ity is a superinduced character (as 

 any one conversant with the divisional structure of minerals 

 must admit), he would have seen, what is highly probable, that 

 the serpentine, " still retaining traces of the tubuli," is nothing 

 more than chrysotile in its incipient stage of development. 

 Which is the most complex explanation of this case the 

 one requiring no more than a structural change, or that which 

 involves a chemical substitution totally unsupported by evidence 

 so far as any thing has been adduced by its author? 



Let us next consider the other eozoonal features. They 

 consist of calcite, or miemite ("intermediate skeleton" and 

 "proper wall"), serpentine, loganite, "white pyroxene," &c. 

 ("chamber- casts" and "canal system"), which are notably 

 secondary, or pseudomorphic products. But Dr. Dawson asserts 

 that they " are all known to have been produced by aqueous 

 deposition," without offering a particle of evidence in his.favour. 

 The assertion, moreover, is a mere repetition of the dicta which 

 constitute Dr. Sterry Hunt's " novel doctrine " ! 



Our theory consistently accounts for the origin of all the 

 features of " Eozoon," whether occurring separately, or in the 

 manner forming what has been termed the cumulative argu- 

 ment also a number of adverse phenomena, which eozoonism 

 is compelled to admit in the case of some to be " anomalies " 

 (we say foraminiferal impossibilities), while in the case of others 

 it has been under the necessity of leaving them out in the cold 

 to support and defend themselves by begging the question. 



How does Dr. Dawson explain the presence of "canal 

 system " in calcite filling the interstices of a large crystal of 

 spinel isolatedly imbedded in highly crystalline hemithrene, 

 such calcite being the basic substance of the rock ? the occur- 



