King and Rowney— 0/^ ^' JEozoon C ana dense. 
141 
so. Dr. Dawson, who is evidently unacquainted with our singular 
theory of pseudomorphism," would have been correct had he qualified 
it as decreiionary . 
6th. 1^0 grounds, as far as we can recollect, have been stated by us 
for our appearing to admit that if specimens occur wholly composed of 
carbonate of lime/' the theory" we have proposed will fall to the 
ground:" on the contrary, as stated, we see no reason why specimens 
of the kind should not be found.* It might rather be assumed, from the 
way Dr. Dawson announced the discovery of an example of ' ' Eozoon 
preserved simply in carbonate of lime" — of its being a conclu- 
sive answer to our objections" — that he felt his theory required the 
occurrence of such specimens. As regards the Tudor specimen, it will 
be recollected that, after minutely discussing Dr. Dawson's description 
of it, we could come to no other conclusion (for which our reasons 
were given) than that it is nothing more than the result of infiltra- 
tion of carbonate of lime, which has penetrated into a parting between 
two layers of the laminated arenaceous calcareous rock containing it. "f 
We may be wrong in taking this particular view: at any rate it 
implies, what we fully believe, that the specimen is of mere mineral 
origin, l^ow, Dr. Dawson was in a position to show the unsoundness 
of our reasons, or to refute our conclusions, if either were incorrect, by 
bringing forward further arguments or evidences belonging to the 
specimen ; but instead of anything of the kind having been done, we 
are simply met by the assertion that since the account of that speci- 
men was published, additional fragments have been collected, the 
chambers of which are filled with a dark coloured limestone," A 
similar statement, it will be recollected, was made respecting what 
were called "chambers" in the original specimen; but which, from 
any evidence that appeared to the contrary, are no more chambers" 
than the meshes between anastomosing strings of calcite. The simple 
fact of the sjoecimen consisting of a thin expansion, scarcely two lines in 
thickness, of sparsely anastomosing string-like ribs, occupying a space 
of six inches and a half hy four inches, and ^ ' lying flat on the plane of 
stratification," is quite sufiicient to prove that it is neither a detached 
section of (as assumed), nor anything else related to, " Eozoon." Our 
points of objection to all the alleged cases of a calcareous " in-filling," 
and our complaints respecting the ' ^ very meagre and unsatisfactory 
accounts" hitherto published of them, ought to have induced Dr. 
Dawson to have given a detailed description, with illustrations if 
needed, of the additional fragments." Had the Tudor specimen and 
the Madoc obscurities been so ecstatically flourished by us, as con- 
clusively disproving the organic origin of Eozoon " we would have 
evoked nothing less than universal derision. It must not be overlooked 
that such cases must now be properly examined from a mineralogical 
,* " Proceodings of the Eoyal Irish Academy," vol. x., pp. 532, 548. 
t "Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy," vol. x., pp. 511, 512. 
