Structure oj Eozoon canadense. 279 



malous type of Foraminiferal structure, formed by the cemen- 

 tation of sand-grains in concentric spheres, which I have de- 

 scribed under the name Parkeria (Phil. Trans. 1869). But 

 as this type does not happen to conform to ]Mr. Carter's pre- 

 conception of a Foraminifer, and as he miglit examine one or 

 more of the silicified balls without finding any indication of 

 organic stnicture, the principle on which he has acted in re- 

 gard to Eozoon would justify him in asserting that nothing 

 but the " wildest conjectui'e " could make it out to be Fora- 

 miniferal, for that " its stnicture does not bear so much resem- 

 blance to that of a foraminiferous test as the legs of a table to 

 those of a quadruped." Now it so happens that every con- 

 clusion I had drawn from the careful study of the best-pre- 

 served specimens of Parheria has been fully confirmod, and 

 its anomalies explained, by the discovery, in our Deep-sea 

 dredgings, of a living Arenaceous Foraminifer (with the 

 animal in it), whose stnicture conforms, in all essential par- 

 ticulars, to that of Parkeria. 1 may fairly, then, apply i\Ir. 

 Carter's words to his own method, and say that, " if such be the 

 grounds on which geological inferences are established, the 

 sooner they are abandoned the better for geology, the worse 

 for sensationalism." 



Those whose knowledge of Foraminifera ranges over the 

 entire group as at present known, have the most unlimited 

 belief in its " possibilities ; " and it has thus come to pass that 

 they accept the Foraminiferal character of the Eozoon, on the 

 basis of the large number of parallelisms which its structure 

 presents to that of existing types, notwithstanding some dif- 

 ferences, which they regard as comparatively non-essential. 



To say nothing of my collaborateurs, Mr. W. K. Parker, 

 Prof. T. Rupert Jones, and Mr. H. B. Brady, whose opinions 

 may be thought to have been personally influenced by my 

 own, I may cite the judgment recently given by the late Prof. 

 Max Schultze not long before his lamented death, as that of 

 an entirely unprejudiced and fully competent " third party," 

 whose opinion even Mr. Carter is bound to respect, on account 

 not only of his well-known profound mastery of Zoology 

 generally, but of his special knowledge of Foraminifera — his 

 admirable Treatise 'Ueber den Organismus derPolythalamien ' 

 having been referred to in my ' Introduction to the Study of 

 the Foraminifera ' (1862) as " among the most important of 

 recent contributions to our knowledge of the organizjftion and 

 life-history " of the group. In the spring of last year. Prof. 

 Schultze requested me to send him some specimens oi Eozoon, 

 in order that he might form his own judgment of its nature, 

 at the same time stating the general opinion among German 



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