164 
ORIGIN OF OLDEST FOSSILS 
mentally differentiated, and the further anticipation of great 
extention of the life record into time before Cambric, the nature 
of the pre-Cambrian life at once attracted the attention of Prof. 
W. K. Brooks, foremost zoologist and evolutionist of his day. 
The bearing of the Brooks disquisition is far-reaching. It 
furnishes a basis for mathematical evaluation of geologic time 
more accurate than ever before recognized. It accounts fully 
for the apparent sudden outburst of life in such grand profusion 
at the beginning of Cambric time. At that date the span of 
evolution was admittedly twice or thrice as long as from the com¬ 
mencement of the Cambric age to the present. It may have been 
somewhat longer, but certainly not eight to ten times longer, as 
is so often urged of late. 
Since pre-Cambrian sedimentation is now represented by two 
great eral successions, with organic remains unearthed far down 
towards the bottom of the lower, or Archeozoic, division, it leaves 
a theoretical third life era of like duration in which to permit the 
primitive expansion of the main animal types. This ancient life 
era we may for convenience designate as the Eozoic Era. Our 
standard life column is now as complete as it is perhaps possible 
ever to construct. 
Geological Science and the State 
Following great war reconstruction days are unhappy days. 
Sore trials and myriad tribulations which inevitably follow mark 
not alone industrial activities. Insidiously they sooner or later 
penetrate every branch of human endeavor. First in government 
circles, soon in the industrial world, then in the various lines of 
* business, and finally on intellectual productivity they operate. In 
the wake of business depression and deflation follows deflation and 
lack of support in the higher enterprises of the mind. Special 
taxes make themselves burdensome throughout the land and the 
world. And this in turn pinches activities that they should never 
touch; but touching, it requires heroic measures to ward off their 
blighting effects. Although the bite of tax is merely a symptom 
rather than the disease, it invites, like a headache, first local relief, 
despite that this does not reach the true cause of disturbance. 
In public affairs the symptom is reflected in many ways. Among 
institutions of learning and state scientific bureaus first attempts 
at the general relief from the immediate pressure appear in the 
