6 INTRODUCTORY 
Until 1864, our knowledge of sponges of the West 
Indies and Florida was confined to rather unsatisfactory 
descriptions of a few scattering species, by Lamarcke, Lam- 
oroux, Schmidt, and a few others; then appeared the 
“Spongiairie de la Mer Caraibe” by Duchaissing and 
Michellotti. So unworked was the field examined by these 
authors, that out of about one hundred and twenty forms 
described by them, something like one hundred were actu- 
ally new to science. In my studies of West Indian Sponges, 
[ have been greatly aided in the identification of species by 
the description and figures published in this work, all of 
which I have found amply sufficient to enable me to decide 
unhesitatingly as to the identity of any species with which 
[ am familiar, that they have described. I am aware that 
my experience with this work is somewhat at variance 
with the expressed opinions of some other authors, but it 
must be borne in mind that Duchaissing and Michellotti 
had the advantage of studying sponges in their native ele- 
ment, and that both their descriptionsand figures are made, 
in most cases, from living or fresh specimens, and that I, 
having had a similar experience, can more readily com- 
prehend their meaning, than others who have never pro- 
iil 
