210 PROF. HUXLEY, ON SOME ORGANISMS FROM GREAT 



centre, and more or less closely coherent. In a, only the cor- 

 puscles can be distinctly made out. 



Such, so far as I have been able to determine them, then, are 

 the facts of structure to be observed in the gelatinous matter 

 of the Atlantic mud, and in the coccoliths and coccospheres. 

 I have hitherto said nothing about their meaning, as in an 

 inquiry so difficult and fraught with interest as this, it seems 

 to me to be in the highest degree important to keep the ques- 

 tions of fact and the questions of interpretation well ajjart. 



I conceive that the granule-heaps and the transparent 

 gelatinous matter in which they are imbedded represent 

 masses of protoplasm. Take away the cysts which charac- 

 terise the Radiolariu, and a dead Sphcerozoum wovild very 

 nearly resemble one of the masses of this deep-sea " Ur- 

 schleim," which must, I think, be regarded as a new form of 

 those simple animated beings which have recently been so well 

 described by Haeckel in his ' Monograj^hie der Moneren.'"^ 

 I proposed to confer upon this new " Moner " the generic 

 name of Bathybius, and to call it after the eminent Pro- 

 fessor of Zoology in the University of Jena, B. Haeckelii. 



From the manner in which the youngest Discolithi and 

 Cyatholithi are found imbedded among the granules ; from 

 the resemblance of the youngest forms of the Discolithi and 

 the smallest " corpuscles " of Cyatholithus to the granules ; 

 and from the absence of any evident means of maintaining 

 an independent existence in either, I am led to believe that 

 they are not independent organisms, but that they stand in 

 the same relation to the protoplasm of Bathybius as the 

 spicula of Sponges or of Radiolaria do to the soft part of 

 those animals. 



That the coccospheres are in some way or other closely 

 connected with the cyatholiths seems very probable. Mr. 

 Sorby's view is that the cyatholiths result from the breaking 

 up of the coccospheres. Jf this were the case, however, I 

 cannot but think that the coccospheres ought to be far more 

 numerous than they really are. 



The converse view, that the coccospheres are formed by 

 the coalescence of the cyatholiths, seems to me to be quite as 

 probable. If this be the case, the more compact variety of 

 the coccospheres must be regarded as a more advanced stage 

 of development of the loose form. 



On either view it must not be forgotten that the com- 

 ponents of the coccospheres are not identical with the free 

 cyatholiths ; but that, on the supposition of coalescence, the 

 disappearance of the granular layer has to be accounted for ; 

 * '.Tenaische Zeitscluift,' Bd. iv. Heft 1. 



