or 
53 
that opposite surfaces were brought together, in twenty-four hours all 
trace of cicatrix would be gone. This rapid and marvellous healing 
was accomplished by the jelly like mass. Several small bodies were 
at times found at the base of sponges and were ejected from the sponge 
itself ; these were the gemmules, which afterwards become sponges. 
In the Museum might be seen specimens of British and foreign 
sponges, chiefly of the keratose division, a beautiful specimen of the 
sea-bird’s nest, presented by Captain Marshall Hall, by whom in the 
Norna expedition it was first dredged, as well as a capital example of 
the Venus’ flower basket, deprived of all but its siliceous skeleton. 
There, too, might be found fossil sponges, notably those strange and till 
recently unclassed objects, called choantes, together with ventriculites 
from our chalk. During the chalk era sponges must have been very 
abundant, as proved by our flints ; for scarcely a chip or flake could be 
made, without sponge or sponge spicules being traced. In the Aquarium 
might been seen living sponges, not so conspicuous as the Turkey and 
honeycombed sponges of the Mediterranean, but more interesting, 
because their growth and movements could be watched. One thing 
the Aquarium had done; if he were wrong his friend, Mr. Henry Lee, 
whom he saw present, would set him right, it had given a sponge new 
to science. (Hear, hear.) This was but one of the advantages science 
was deriving from the Aquarium. Under the microscope an oppor- 
tunity would be given for any who wished to see portions of sponges, 
spicules, aud gemmules. 
MR. BENJAMIN LOMAX ON A “GREY PEA.” 
As his lecture must necessarily be a small one, he had chosen 
a small subject—a grey pea, the missile of the schoolboy—the music 
of the boy’s rattle—the apparatus of the thimble-rig man—and yet 
one of God’s choicest works. Dry, hard, yellow, wrinkled, it looked 
different indeed from the full green seed, borne on a graceful twining 
plant, whose flowers gardeners had not disdained to cultivate, and 
whose scent perfumers had thought worth extracting. Yet, even in 
its corpsehood, it boasted a great commercial value. By thousands, by 
