BATHYBIUS. 23 



memoir by Professor Huxley, " On some Organisms living 

 at great Depths in the North Atlantic Ocean," in which he 

 states that the stickiness of the deep-sea mud is due to 

 " innumerable lumps of a transparent gelatinous substance," 

 each lump consisting of granules, coccoliths, and foreign 

 bodies, embedded in a " transparent, colourless, and struc- 

 tureless matrix." The granules form heaps which are some- 

 times the To-Vo tn of an inch or more in diameter. The 

 "granule" is a rounded or oval disc, which is stained 

 yellow by iodine, and is dissolved by acetic acid. " The 

 granule heaps and the transparent gelatinous matter in 

 which they are embedded represent masses of protoplasm." 

 One of the masses of this deep-sea "urschleim" may be 

 regarded as a new form of the simplest animated beings 

 (Moner), and Huxley proposes to call it Bathybius* The 

 " Discolithi and the Cyatholithi" some of which resemble 

 the " granules," are said to bear the same relation to the 

 protoplasm of Bathybius as the spicula of sponges do to the 

 soft parts of those animals ; but it must be borne in mind 

 that the spicula of sponges are imbedded in a matrix, which is 

 formed by and contains, besides the spicula, small masses of 

 living or germinal matter, which have been ignored, although 

 the matrix is produced and the form of the spicula deter- 



* The idea of the existence of huge continuous masses of living 

 matter of enormous extent, is most fanciful and improbable. It appears 

 to be opposed to well ascertained facts. So far from living matter growing 

 to form very large collections, it divides in almost all known instances 

 before it reaches the diameter even of 3^ of an inch. I think that the 

 phenomena essential to living matter are only possible in minute masses 

 separated from one another, so that each may be supplied with nutrient 

 materials. See "Of Life," p. 67. 



