T 



IX 



DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS 



HE active objectors to the animal nature of 

 Eozoon have been few, though some of them 

 have returned to the attack with a pertinacity 

 and determination which would lead one to be- 

 lieve that they think the most sacred interests of 

 science to be dependent on the annihilation of 

 this proto-foraminifer. I do not propose here to 

 treat of the objections in detail. I have presented 

 the case of Eozoon on its own merits, and on 

 these it must stand. I may merely state that the 

 objectors strive to account for the existence of 

 Eozoon by purely mineral deposition, and that the 

 complicated changes which they require to suppose 

 are perhaps the strongest indirect evidence for the 

 necessity of regarding the structures as organic. 

 The reader who desires to appreciate this may 

 consult my memoir of 1888.^ 



1 Also Rowney and King's papers in Journal Geological 

 Society, August, 1866 ; and Proceedings Irish Academy, 1870 



and 1 87 1. 



221 



