552 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
In January, 1898, Dr. H. V. Wilson presented before the National Fisheries 
Congress, held at Tampa, Fla., a paper? making some suggestions on rearing 
sponges from the egg and on improving their quality by grafting. In June, 1907, 
he published’ some results of his experiments with certain noncommercial 
sponges at the United States Fisheries Laboratory, Beaufort, N. C., demonstrating 
that they could be raised by regeneration from degenerate masses to which the 
sponge is reduced under certain artificial conditions of confinement. Doctor 
Wilson suggested that this phenomenon would probably be presented by the 
sponges of commerce and might be utilized in a system of sponge culture for 
economic purposes. The same investigator has since discovered that practi- 
cally the same effect can be produced by squeezing the soft parts of the sponge 
through bolting cloth into vessels of sea water, the expressed tissue substances, 
aggregating themselves into little heaps on the bottom, eventually regenerating 
the skeletal tissues and developing into complete sponges. None of these 
experiments has been performed on commercial species and the growth of the 
new individuals has not been kept long under observation, but I believe that 
there is no good reason to doubt that it would be possible to apply the methods 
successfully to any of the economic sponges of Florida. 
With the exception of my own investigations and the related and parallel 
experiments of Messrs. Cheyney and Bigelow recounted in the main part of 
this paper, I believe the foregoing to cover all actual experiments in sponge 
culture, save one or two cases in which a very few cuttings or small sponges have 
been planted on the bottom by persons engaged in the industry; but in 1895 
Bidder ¢ considered the question from a purely academic standpoint and raised 
certain questions as to the utility of the whole project. Mr. Bidder on a priori 
grounds reached the provisional conclusions, inter alia (1) that the total volume 
of the new sponges grown from cuttings would not exceed the volume of the 
original sponge if it were permitted to attain its natural growth under the same 
conditions for an equal time; (2) that sponges or cuttings raised above the bottom, 
as in Buccich’s experiments, would probably grow more rapidly than the same 
or similar individuals on the bottom; and (3) that the sponge-bearing area, 
naturally confined practically to the bottom, might be extended by using a sus- 
pension system of culture in which several strata between the surface and the 
bottom might be utilized by appropriately constructed supports for the growing 
sponges. How far some of these questions are answered by my own experience 
will be seen in the following pages. 
@ Wilson, H. V.: On the feasibility of raising sponges from the egg. Bulletin U.S. Fish Commission, 
vol. Xv, 1897, p. 241-245. 1808. 
6 Wilson, H. V.: A new method by which sponges may be artificially reared. Science, n. s., vol. 
XXV, no. 649, p. 912-915. 1907. 
¢ Bidder, George: Notes on projects for the improvement of sponge fisheries. Journal of the 
Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, vol. Iv n. s.) p. 195 -202. 
