SPONGES 84 
discovered that the hydroids, like sertularia possessed an- 
imal life. This appears to have opened the eyes of nat- 
uralists in general to the fact that sponges might be also 
animals, | 
In spite of this, however, Donati, in his Della Storia 
Naturale Marina dell’ Adriatico (1750) appears reluctant 
to consider sponges as animals, but accords to them a kind 
of semi-animality, regarding them as plant animals. Lin- 
neaus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae, 1760, 
places the Spongia among the cryptogamousalgae, although 
at that time his views had been well considered, 
From his observations made on the American coast, 
Peyssonel was induced to believe that sponges were fabri- 
cated by worms which he frequently found in them, Al- 
though this was promptly disproved by Ellis, as late as 
about 1850, we find Sowerby in British Miscellany advanc- 
ing a similar theory, 
Ellis and Pallas both were thoroughly satisfied as to 
the animality of sponges, and so conclusive were their ar- 
guments that Linneaus in the twelfth edition of the Systema 
