THE HISTORY OF A DISCOVERY 



139 



re 



le 



at that when geologists and pal?eontologists were 

 thus required to believe in the existence of organic 

 remains in rocks regarded as altogether Azoic and 

 hopelessly barren of fossils, and to carry back the 

 dawn of life as far before those Cambrian rocks, 

 which were supposed to contain its first traces, as 

 these are before the middle period of the earth's 

 life-history, some hesitation should be felt. Further, 

 the accurate appreciation of the evidence for such 

 a fossil as Eozoon required an amount of know- 

 ledge of minerals, of the more humble types of 

 animals, and of the conditions of mineralization of 

 organic remains, possessed by few even of pro- 

 fessional geologists. Thus Eozoon has met with 

 some negative scepticism and positive opposition 

 — though the latter has been smaller in amount 

 than might have been anticipated, when we con- 

 sider the novel and startling character of the facts 

 adduced. The most annoying element in the dis- 

 cussion has consisted in the liability of observers, 

 only partially informed, to confound our specimens 



Royal Society., vol. xv. ; Intellectual Observer., 1865 ; Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History., 1874; ^i^d other papers 

 and notices. 

 ^ Journal Geological Society, February, 1865. 



