lo8 BATHYBIUS. 



Bathybius. I will now draw attention to a form of 

 matter fancifully called protoplasm, dredged from the 

 bottom of the sea, and supposed to be very widely extended 

 at great depths. This so-called protoplasm has been much 

 discussed of late, and concerning its nature much difference 

 of opinion has been entertained. From the protoplasm of 

 the amoeba and certain forms of foraminifera, we pass, it is 

 suggested by gradations, to larger and more extended sheets 

 of this substance. These have been included under the 

 head of "urschleim," and which is said to constitute the 

 organisms of the simplest animated beings, included by 

 Haeckel in the genus Moner. It would be wrong to omit 

 all mention of this material in this place. The matter 

 is interesting and of some importance, but I have not my- 

 self investigated it. I shall therefore quote the observa- 

 tions of others so far as they appear to me to bear upon the 

 consideration of the general nature of the organic sub- 

 stances which have been comprised under the vague term 

 protoplasm. 



In the " Microscopical Journal" for October, 1868, is a 

 memoir by Professor Huxley, " On some Organisms living 

 at great depths in the North Atlantic Ocean." In this com- 

 munication 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 

 structureless matrix." The granules form heaps which are 

 sometimes the ToVo tn f 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 



