476 PKOFESSOK E. RAY LANKESTER. 



The Structure of Haliphysema Tumanowiczii, By E. 

 Ray Lankester, F.R.S. (With Plate XXII.) 



A REMARKABLE dispute has been carried on during the 

 past year concerning a minute marine organism which forms 

 a tubular case in shape like a " cornucopia/' scarcely so large 

 as a letter " y " as printed on this page. These little tubes 

 were first described by Dr. Bowerbank (in 1864, ' British 

 Spongiadee/ Ray Society), and were considered by him to be 

 the skeletons of a very simple kind of sponge, to which he 

 gave the name Haliphysema. Two species were described 

 by that author, viz. H. Tumanowiczii and H. ramulosum. 

 Mr. Carter, in 1870 {'Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.,' p. 309) 

 brought forward reasons for considering these little tubes as 

 the work of quite another group of organisms, viz. the 

 Foraminifera, and described what he consideretl as a closely 

 allied form under the name " .Squa7nulina scapula.'" In 

 1877 Professor Ernst Haeckel published in the ' Jenaische 

 Zeitschrift' an account of Haliphysema, in which he recog- 

 nised five species ; with this genus he associated a new 

 one, Gastrophysema, into which he placed the " SquamuUtia 

 scopula " of Carter, and a new species G. cUthalamium. 



The soft parts of the Haliphysema of Bowerbank and of 

 Carter's similar organism had never been described before 

 Professor Haeckel's memoir on the subject. Haliphysema 

 was simply known as a funnel-like shell of minute size, 

 the substance of the shell being made up of particles foreign 

 to the organism itself, namely, grains of quartz, spicules of 

 sponges, — and any other such material. There was nothing in 

 the structure of the tests of these organisms to forbid their 

 association with the arenaceous Foraminifera or similar 

 building forms of Protozoa. On the other hand, it was possible 

 that they were the work of a sponge, a polyp, or even of a 

 worm. Professor Haeckel gave a most minute and fully 

 illustrated description, not only of the test of Haliphysema 

 and Gastrophysema, but also of their soft living substance. 

 His memoir is illustrated by three plates, and on these 

 plates are figured, with ideal symmetry and precision, the 

 appearance of these forms as seen when longitudinally 

 divided in the living state. Professor Haeckel described 

 Haliphysema and Gastrophysema as hollow mouth-bearing 

 sacs, built of two layers of cells — an outer '^ syncytium " 

 the ectoderm — and an inner closely set lining of flagellate 

 ''coUared-cells/' similar to those found in the ciliate chambers 



