SPONGE CULTURE. 609 
sects, as did those of Lesina, and select “ durable bodies of clay (pyramids, cones, 
or perforated amphoras)”’ or reenforced cement. Allemand forgets, however, 
to tell us how these clay attachments may be sheltered from light, for all the 
experimenters will not have the advantage of suspending their apparatus under 
alaboratory, as was done in Sfax. The author advised, a few pages earlier, the 
use of baskets or boxes to preserve the sponges precisely for the purpose of 
shielding them from too strong a light. 
Allemand, agreeing on this subject with his predecessors, concludes from 
these researches that sponge culture has a real industrial and commercial value. 
But what he published, no more than what was published by the others, is of a 
nature to lead to this conviction. There is a great distance between laboratory 
experiments and the founding of an industrial enterprise. It should not be 
forgotten that the experimenters unconsciously pass very lightly over their 
failures and insist only on the encouraging facts, forgetting that industry must 
take everything in account, success as well as failure. Schmidt and Buccich 
discount 10 per cent of loss for undertakings in sponge culture; nevertheless, 
during the course of researches made by them during ten years they 
were unable to follow their most promising cultures for a longer period than 
five years; after this they became discouraged. In their hands, skillful by 
long practice, the final loss came near to 100 per cent. Monroe admits that 
the average loss in his researches was quite considerable. Allemand, evidently 
alluding to his own experiments, says that an undertaking in sponge culture, if 
well conducted, will suffer but a very small loss. We must, unfortunately, ask 
how he computed the mortality of his cuttings. It seems that he took into 
account only the mortality which occurred during the first weeks after the 
cutting of the sponges. We find information like the following in his table of 
experiments: 
Mortality, 7 per cent; at the end of February there remained two sponges. Mor- 
tality, 5 percent; at the end of February almost al! the fragments were dead. Mortality, 
20 per cent; on June 29, 1906, the apparatus was entirely dislodged. 
On the whole, the mortality in the work at Sfax seems to have been quite 
considerable; it must also be remembered that the experiments were carried 
on during a maximum period of two or three years, and it is impossible for us 
to foresee what supplementary losses might have taken place during the two or 
three years that would have to elapse before the sponges could have been garnered. 
This is information which a merchant ought necessarily to have. 
With the exception of Schmidt, the sponge cultivators do not give the 
cost of their cuttings. ‘‘The cost of the installation will not be high,” says 
Allemand. On the contrary, the cost would be considerable. Shall I repeat 
what I have already said about the other methods of sponge culture? The 
B. B. F. 1908—39 
