194 Prof. K. Mobius on the Nourishment of 



pally of dijine tenacious mud (Schlick, mud, ooze) in which a 

 great number of animals of various classes find all the condi- 

 tions of their sustenance, and therefore also the nourishment 

 necessary for their growth and for the production of their 

 progeny. 



The grave question as to the origin of this nourishment 

 would no longer occupy the attention of biologists if living 

 plants, containing chlorophyll, had been also brought up from 

 these depths. But as these are wanting, G. C. "Wallich 

 ascribes to the Ehizopoda of the deep sea the faculty of sepa- 

 rating from the surrounding medium the elementary consti- 

 tuents of their bodies. (North-Atlantic Sea-bed, 1862, pp. 

 130-132 ; and Intellectual Observer, Dec. 29, 1869.) 



But, according to the present state of biology, only or- 

 ganisms containing chlorophyll possess the power of producing 

 albuminoid compounds from carbonic acid, water, ammonia, 

 and nitric acid. We must therefore for the present abstain 

 from endowing hjpotheAicaUy any kind of beings destitute of 

 chlorophyll with this faculty, in order to explain the mode of 

 nutrition of the animals of the deep sea. 



Nor should we make any advance towards the true solution 

 of tlie question before us if we were to suppose the proto- 

 plasmic being which Huxley has described (in the ' Quarterly 

 Journal of Microscopical Science,' 1868, vol. viii. p. 201) 

 under the name of Bathjhins Ilccckelii, and which Hiickel 

 has further elucidated (in the ' Jenaische Zeitschr. fiir Med. 

 und Naturw,' 1870, vol. v. p. 492), to be produced by con- 

 tinual spontaneous generation at the bottom of the sea. 



So long as such notions are destitute of actual proof, we 

 must, in order to keep solid ground under our feet, seek the 

 origin of the nourishment of the deep-sea animals in the upper 

 regions of the sea, in which plants containing chloropnyll 

 collect supplies of organic material. 



This is done by the English investigators of the deep sea, 

 W. Thomson, Carpenter, and Jeffreys, Carpenter is inclined 

 to accept the hypothesis proposed by Thomson, according to 

 which the Protozoa of the deep sea are nourished by proto- 

 plasm which is diffused through the whole mass of the sea- 

 water, renewed constantly by the plants and animals living 

 at its surface and penetrating by diftusion even to the greatest 

 depths (' Nature,' March 31, 1870, pp. 564, 565). 



In support of this view it is remarked that nitrogenous 

 organic masses could be recognized by chemical reagents, not 

 only in the higher strata, but even in those of a depth of 500- 

 700 fathoms. The microscopic properties of protoplasm have 

 not, however, as yet been demonstrated in these nitrogenous 



