Reviews and Book Noiices. 367 



The Nummulosphere, Part IIT., The Ocean Floor or Benthoplank- 

 ton, by R. Kirkpatrick. London : Luniley iS: Co., i Exhibition Road, 

 S.W. 7 ; price 10/- net ; 328 pp., demy Svo., 27 plates and 44 text iUu.s- 

 trations. Our hopes of an advance in geological knowledge were rai.sed 

 by the statement in the introduction to this book that ' The foundations 

 on which the stately edifice of modern geological science is supporrted are 

 to a certain extent unsound, though easily to be made secure.' The 

 discovery that should ' bring about a revolution in our ideas concerning 

 the nature and origin of by far the greater part of the planetary crust, and 

 will modif)' our conceptions even of cosmic evolution ' is that of ' the 

 organic origin of igneous rocks and meteorites.' We do not think that 

 the author has attained his purpose. It appears that the sum total of his 

 investigations is that he considers he finds nummulites, or traces of num- 

 mulitic structure, in most rocks. He asserts that the ubiquitous num- 

 mulites. or their remains, are to be seen in chalk, liinr. basalt, syenite, 

 porphyritic rocks, in Loftusia, Parkeria, Cyalocriuiis and the Stromatoporoids. 

 Moreover, most of the materials used in the arts had a nummulitic origin ; 

 and we are surprised at the extent to which nummulitic structure persists. 

 Among the materials that have this structure are the terra-cotta, bricks, 

 aiid slates of the Natural History Museum in London, jade, soapstone 

 images, crockery, meerschaum, rust irom an old saucepan, and the pig- 

 ment in old oil-paintings. The author sees nummulitic structure in 

 meterorites, also, though he confesses (we believe with true scientific 

 spirit) only with difficulty. The true nature of Eozoon is once again 

 declared, though we thought its reqidescat had been finally ]Dronounced. 

 The many photographic plates included in this book, are accompanied by 

 diagrammatic explanations which represent the Author's interpretation 

 of the microscopic structures. From an inspection of these plates and of 

 the accompanying diagrams we can only conclude that the author sees 

 structures in rocks which other ol)servers would probably fail to discern. 

 Even granting that the interpretation of sections under the miscroscope 

 may be a matter of personal opinion, we find in the text of this work 

 examples of invalid reasoning to which we mu.st call attention. For 

 example, the author saw in one of Carpenter's sections of Eozoon ' some- 

 thing which [he] took to be a sm.all coiled nummulite shell situated in 

 one of the supposed chambers of the Eozoon.' He therefore ' concluded 

 that Dr. Carpenter was right in his theory of organic origin ' (p. 8). This 

 seems to be a clear case of the fallacy of arguing from a special cnse to a 

 general rule. In justice to the author we hasten to add that he enlarges 

 on this statement (p. 77) and refers to his further research on other 

 material. But we hold that anyone who attempts to relay the founda- 

 tions of a science should not present in his Introduction such a statement 

 as tliis. Then again (p. 9) we read, in a paragraph on Stromatoporoids 

 and Receptaculites (which the author found to be formed of Nummulites), 

 that ' These fossils are pala-ontologically similar to igneous rocks, and 

 hence I regarded the latter as niasses of nummulite colonies resembling 

 coral-reefs.' We hold that an important conclusion like this should at 

 least be drawn Iron connected premisses expressed in terms of precise 

 connotation. Again, on page 15, the author briefly replies to certain 

 criticisms and objections : — (i) ' That no traces of organic remains could 

 -survive in rocks that had once been molten.' As regards his reply to this 

 point we would urge that tlie experiment of heating a piece of Kadiolarian 

 earth is an electric furnace to 1700 deg. C. (which the author had carried 

 out) does not exactly reproduce natural conditions. (2) ' That the 

 supposed organic remains in igneous rocks may be of accidental origin.' 

 The author s reply to this is that ' If a plug of granite one hundred metres 

 long and, say, one centimetre in area, were cut out of the De Lank granite 



quarry I am justified in stating that traces of organic remains 



would certainly be found in every section.' We do not think this is a 

 valid argument, and, at the best, it is again arguing from a special case 



1918 Not. 1. 



