78 Natural Hiftory 



CHAP. viir. 

 Of Sponges. 



THAT this Clafs of marine Bodies is of an animal Nature, 

 was an Opinion that prevailed fo early as in Artfiotle\ 

 Time. For in his Hiftoria Animalium^ Book V. Chap. i6. 

 he tells us, " Many People were of Opinion, that Sponges 

 " were capable of Feeling, and that they would fhrink back, 

 " if any one attempted to pluck them up." Ai'iflotle^ 

 however, rejected this Notion ; as did moft ot his Followers : 

 Though it feems not improbable, but that thofe, who firft 

 broached it, had feme kind of Experience, as a Foundation 

 for their Opinion ; fince, if the Sponges (liould be found to 

 be the Habitation, the Fabric of Polypes, or Animalcules of 

 a particular Order, no doubt but the fudden Retreat oi many 

 thoufands of thefe together, into the Holes they relided in, 

 upon the x^pproach of Danger, would give the Perfon, who 

 was vvrefting the whole Colony from its fixed Abode, a Senfe 

 of a different Species of Reilftance, from that which a Sub- 

 ftance, not animated, could be fuppofed to do. 



There arc not many Kinds of Sponges on our own Coafts ; 

 and thefe, for the moft part, are minute and tender. We 

 feldom meet with them, till after they have been long fepa- 

 rated from their Places where they grew ; and of courfe the 

 Organization greatly injured. So that, notwithftanding I 

 have examined with the utmoff Attention, moft of thofe 

 that our own Coaffs afford, and like wife a great Variety of 

 different Species of Sponges, with which the Cabinets of fe- 

 veral of my Acquaintance here are furnifhed, yet I own it 

 is not in my Power to give fo explicit an Account of the 



Strudure 



