:i4i2 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Dec. 



Spores and clatcrs of Marchautia polyuiorpha, 1 20. 

 Spores auii scales of Acrostichuu) aliconie, 40. 

 Vcramium acanthouotuin (sea weed), 40. 

 Calk-thaiiinion ^Telrasporcs in swollen raniule). 40. 

 Micraslerias lobala (desmid), 120. 

 Hair of Oruithorynchus, 120. 



Specimens from sea life. 



l.agaucula rep;;us (colony) Polyozoa, 40. 



Canipauularia (colony), 40. 



Anj^uinaria spatulata, Polyozoa. 



Spines and pcdicellaria of star fish, 4 species in 4 prints, 40. 



Histological specitnctts. 



Injected small intestine of Hedge hog, 40. 

 IxJngitudinal section of child's tongue (injected), 40. 

 Blood vessels in the brain of a Hare, 40. 

 Section of human scalp (injected), 40. 



Something About Sponges. 



Bv A. CHOPIN, 



M.\XCn ESTER. 



The history of the ppon<:je is :i very peculiar one ; fen* centurie.^ 

 a controversy raged between zoologists and l»()tanists, hoth 

 claitning it for their respective kingdoms, the sponges then 

 holding the i)os tion now occupied by our favorite Volvox. We 

 first hear of them scientifically about 330 b. c, when Aristotle, 

 in some of his writings spoke of them as animals endowed to a 

 certain extent with the senses of hearing :ind seeing. In others 

 of his works he considers them as vegetables, but seems to con- 

 clude that they belong to both animal and vegetable kingdoms, 

 and are animid-plants. Some 400 years later, Pliny class d them 

 as animals, and even sp<jke of them as having sensi*)le life, and 

 that they possess blood. He also tells us of some writers who 

 can distinguish them as males and females. From the time of 

 I'liny to the midribs of the 18th century botanists seem to have 

 h:i<I the pull of the rope, Gerarde, Ray and Marsigli amongst 

 ihem would not hear of the sponges being animals, although the 

 latter saw (171U) contniction and dilatation of the oscula of some 

 sponges. Linne, in 1770, classified them amongst the Cryptoga- 

 moiii aJg(e. About this time Trembly, Ellis and others took up 



