238 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
for the importance of his inquiries, hut for the rash zeal with which he 
has insisted upon bringing ridicule on Irish science. At a meeting 
of the Geological Society, held on the 10th of January, he and his col- 
league, Dr. Rowney, brought forward their geological mare’s-nest once 
more. They will have it, despite the opinion of those who are experienced 
in microscopic observation, that Eozoon is the result of something which they 
term mineral segregation. However, they have not found any supporters, 
and the able paper which was read by Dr. Carpenter immediately after theirs 
has served to convince us more than ever that Eozoon is a foraminiferous fossil. 
In this paper Dr. Carpenter stated that a recent siliceous cast of Amphiste- 
gina from the Australian coast exhibited a perfect representation of the 
“ asbestiform layer ” which the author described in his former communication 
on the structure of Eozoon , and which led him to infer the nummuline 
affinities of that ancient foraminifer, — a determination which has since been 
confirmed by Dr. Dawson. This “asbestiform layer” was then shown to 
exhibit in Eozoon a series of remarkable variations, which can be closely 
paralleled by those which exist in the course of the tubuli in the shells of 
existing nummuline foraminifera, and to be associated with a structure 
exactly similar to the lacunar spaces intervening between the outside of the 
proper walls of the chambers and the intermediate skeleton, by which they 
become overgrown, formerly inferred by the author to exist in Calcarina. 
Dr. Carpenter combated the opinion advanced] by Professor King and 
Dr. Rowney, in the preceding paper, and stated that, even if the remarkable 
dendritic passages hollowed out in the calcareous layers, and the arrange- 
ments of the minerals in the Eozoic limestone, could be accounted for by in- 
organic agencies, there still remains the nummuline structure of the chamber- 
walls, to which, the author asserts, no parallel can be shown in any un- 
doubted mineral product. In conclusion, the author stated that he had 
recently detected Eozoon in a specimen of ophicalcite from Bohemia, in a 
specimen of gneiss from near Moldau, and in a specimen of serpentinous 
limestone sent to Sir Charles Lyell by Dr. Giimbel, of Bavaria. 
Deceased Geologists. — We regret to learn of the death of Professor Oppul, of 
Munich, and of Dr. Forchhammer, of Oersted, two most distinguished 
geologists. 
A Relic of the Mammoth. — A tusk, measuring 10 feet 2 inches in length 
and 22 inches in circumference at the thickest part, has been found ten feet 
below the surface in excavating for gravel for the Spalding and March 
Railway at the pits at Deeping St. J ames. It is in a good state of preserva- 
tion. 
Fossils in Volcanic Ash. — Some interesting specimens of vegetable fossils 
found in a bed of volcanic ash near Lagan Bay, Arran, were exhibited by 
Mr. Wiinsch at a late meeting of the Manchester Geological Society. The 
stone in which the fossils were embedded appeared like an ordinary piece of 
whinstone, and fossils in such a stratum were novel. They appeared 
to be Sigillaria, Lepidodendron, Lepidostrobus, &c., and they had grown 
in a marine habitat, and had been enveloped with ash from an adjoining 
volcano. 
Newspaper Geology. — A paragraph which originally appeared in an Aus- 
tralian paper, and which has gone the round of our English “ Press,” describes 
