534 



THE AZOIC SYSTEM AND ITS SUBDIVISIONS. 



rock, and consequently conld not by any possibility bo an original con- 

 temporaneously bedded structure ; neither could it be fossilifcrous, any 

 more than an ordinary veinstone could so be. 



For the purpose of accounting, to a certain extent, for the extraordi- 

 nary delusion which has prevadcd among palocontologists with reference 

 to the organic character of the Eozoon, a few words may here be added. 

 In the first j)lace, attention may bo called to the fact, that the discovery 

 of traces of organic life in such rocks as lavas and granites, and even 

 in slags and meteorites, has become one of the common occurrences of 

 the present day. A long list of names might be cited of scientific 

 observers who have enriched geological literature with *' gems " of this 

 kind. The reasons of this are in part to be found in the desire to do 

 something sensational, and in part to the entire ignorance which pre- 

 vails among many zoologists and palicontologists as to the great variety 

 of forms occurring in the mineral kingdom, which it oidy requires an 

 imaginative temperament to endow with the attributes of organic struc- 

 ture. Symmetrical grouping of minute crystals, dendritic markings, 

 radiated aggregations, fibrous structure, and many other commonly 



occurring forms in winch minerals are found, have, each in turn, served 

 as a basis for a new genus, family, or order in the animal or the vege- 

 table kingdom. 



A complete list of all the books and papers which have appeared 

 within the past twenty or thirty years, — that is, during the latest epoch 

 of geological eidightenmcnt, — having for their object the display to the 

 scientific world of dazzling "gems" of the Eozoon family, would form 

 quite a lengthy document. Space can only bo found for alluding to a 

 few of these which are of special interest as bearing — more or less di- 

 rectly — on the Eozoon question, either as showing how the sponsors of 

 this supposed organism have allowed themselves to be deceived in other 

 and parallel cases, or how far, in general, those can go who have once 

 taken up the idea that the peculiar mineral forms with whicli they are 

 unfamiliar, and which have a superficial resemblance to the work of 

 living organisms, are really such. 



As Dr. W. 13. Carpenter is the person who, more than any one else, is 

 responsible for the generally prevailing belief in the organic nature of 

 the Eozoon, it will be well to call attention, in the first place, to a com- 

 munication of this eminent authority, published in "Nature,'* and 

 headed " New Laurentian Fossil." In this he remarks, in reference to a 

 specimen furnislied him by a gentleman who had been " for some years on 

 the outlook for fossils in the Laurentian rocks of Scotland," as follows : 



