1866.] KIN^G AND KOWKET " EOZOONAL EOCK." 195 



glass, they, too, are seen to have a precisely identical structure, 

 *' every individual thread glistening brightly under appropriate illu- 

 mination." Apply the same high power to the rods, even the finest ; 

 they are likewise resolved into asbestiform fibre*. Does anything 

 of the kind exist in recent or fossil foraminifers, even in Operculina, 

 the genus which, owing to its tubuli '' separating from each other in 

 some parts and becoming more closely crowded in others," has been 

 referred to as offering in this respect a complete agreement with 

 " Eozoon " ? Is it conceivable that easts of pseudopodial tubuli 

 could be compound or fibrous, like asbestus? It is manifestly 

 superfluous to make a reply in the negative. 



Dr. Carpenter has given representations of the proper wall of 

 Amphistegina, Operculina, Cydodypeus, and some other genera, 

 showing pseudopodial tubulationf ; but in every case the tubules 

 are distinctly separated one from another from base to apex. In 

 marked contrast to such separation are those cases in " eozoonal " 

 Ophite, already noticed, in which the casts are intimately united 

 throughout their entire length. 



According to the view we are opposing, the surface of a " chamber- 

 cast" or granule, from which the " proper wall" has been detached, 

 ought to be " rendered hispid by the minute projections which 

 passed into the entrances of the tubuli," as in the recent siliceous 

 casts of an Amphistegina from the Australian coast, described by 

 Dr. Carpentei;; but instead of exhibiting any definite projections, 

 such as would result from the cylindrical and separated tubula- 

 tion of the " proper wall," like those represented in a " small por- 

 tion " from another specimen of apparently the same species (" to 

 show the free openings of the tubuli on the internal surface of 

 the chambers" J), the representative part or surface of the serpen- 

 tine granules, from which the asbestiform layer, whether compact 

 or open, has been artificially broken off, is irregularly, compactly, and 

 indefinitely hispid, precisely as obtains on the freshly fractured ter- 

 minal surfaces of finely fibrous minerals. 



It may be contended that the isolated aciculi " exactly correspond" 

 with the hispid projections on the siliceous cast of the Amphistegina 

 just aUuded to. This cannot be admitted, since it is impossible to 

 separate such aciculi from others immediately adjacent, which com- 



* Often the asbestiform structure of the aciculi has disappeared, which we 

 believe to be simply a molecular change. Delesse states that the fibres of cliry- 

 sotile occurring in the Ophite of the Vosges, which are described as " excessively 

 fine," "swell out and become opaque and whitish on exposure to air" (Ann. des 

 Mines, 4^ ser. tome xviii. p. 328). Taking this fact in connexion with the con- 

 sideration that Ophite must have passed through considerable variations of tem- 

 perature, pressure, &c., and that its essential mineral — serpentine — is eminently 

 unstable in its molecular constitution, as shown by its various allomorphs, we 

 feel persuaded that our belief, expressed above, cannot be set aside. The modi- 

 fications presented by the double asbestiform layer, noticed in a previous paper, 

 and several others which have fallen under our observation, offer an analogy to 

 the one observed by Delesse. 



t Introduction to the Study of the Foraminifera, pi. 13. fig. 25 a; pi. 17. 

 figs. 8, 9,12, 13; pi. 19. figs. 3, 4. 



+ Op. cit. p. 245, pi. 13. fig. 25 a, and Explanation. 



