530 



THE AZOIC SYSTEM AND ITS SUBDIVISIONS. 



time forward, no year has failed to add something to the literature of 

 this subject. But it must be admitted that the opponents of the 

 organic character of the Eozoon have been on the whole decidedly in 

 the minority. This problematical body has, almost without exception, 

 gone into the various text-books of geology, in all countries where that 

 branch of science is cultivated, with at most, in some instances, a vague 

 intimation that there were some persons who were not disposed to 

 accept the Eozoon as a relic of organized existence. 



It was not an easy matter for those convinced that this body was sim- 

 ply a mineral to furnish satisfactory proof of the correctness of tlieir 

 opinion ; for when it was said by them that they could discern nothing 

 necessarily organic in the specimens of Eozoon which they had exam- 

 ined, it could always be replied, from the other side, that these op- 

 ponents of the Eozoon had not had the opportunity of studying the 

 series of specimens in the collections of the Canada Survey, and that 

 these were so complete and couvincing in character that every one to 

 whom this privilege should be granted would be compelled to acknowl- 

 edge that opposition to the views of Messrs. Dawson and Carpenter had 



no basis of fact. 



In 1875, however, Professor Mobius of the University of Kiel, havm^^ 

 discovered a Rhizopod, to which he gave the name of Carpenteria lilia- 

 phModendron, and which appeared to him, at first, to have an astonishing 

 resemblance in its structure to that of the Eozoon, determined to make 



r ri 



a thorough investigation of the Canadian supposed fossil, and, for this 

 purpose, solicited material from all quarters. As he appeared to be, if 

 not convinced, at least quite desirous of being convinced, of the organic 

 nature of the Eozoon, ho was supplied with all the best material in the 

 hands of Dawson and Carpenter. Indeed, the latter, as Professor Mobius 

 states, gave him one thin section, which hp had never before allowed 

 to go out of his hands, on account of its furnishing such important evi- 

 dence of the organic nature of the Eozoon.* 



' The work in which the results obtained by Professor Mobius are 

 given to the world is remarkable, especially, for the number and clear- 

 ness of the illustrations which accompany the text, and they are of 



* "Professor "Carpenter hatte die grosse Giite. mir vortrc^ftlicho Priiparate zu 

 schicken ; ja, er vertraute mir einen Dumisolilifl zum Stadium an, den cr semes 

 hohen bewcisenden Wertlies wegcn noch niemals aus den Hiinden gegeben haUe. 

 MiiHus, in " Der Ban des Eozoon Canadense," etc., p. 177. In spite of this, we find 

 Dawson claiming that the results obtained by Mobius should not be accepted as 

 valid, because the latter "had access merely to a limited number of specimens. 

 Am. Jour. Sci., (3), XVII. 197. 



