54 INCREASE OF THE SPONGE. 



watch the same orifice, at short intervals, for five 

 hours, and sometimes observing it for a quarter of 

 an hour at a time, but still the stream rolled on with 

 a constant and equal velocity." These currents 

 take place only from those parts that are under 

 water, and immediately cease when the same parts 

 are uncovered, or when the animal dies. Placed as 

 the sponge is, lowest in the scale of animated beings, 

 in no one respect has it been neglected by the all- 

 wise and beneficent Creator, whose care of it is as 

 manifest as that of the elephant in its jungle, or the 

 camel in the desert. 



A remarkable illustration of this appears in the 

 increase of the sponge. At certain seasons of the 

 year, yellow jelly-like grains sprout from the sub- 

 stance which covers the skeleton of the sponge, 

 projecting more and more, as they increase in size, 

 into its cavities the germs, in fact, of a future 

 race. Each germ assumes an egg-like shape, and 

 a large portion of its surface becomes covered 

 with little hairs called cilia 

 the plural of the Latin name for 

 an eyelash, to which they bear a 

 strong resemblance all endowed 

 with the power of vibration. And 

 why has the egg -like germ such 

 an appendage ? Well may the 

 answer be pondered by those who 



CILIA OF A POLYP. . A . . 



think that things accounted trivial 

 are beneath the notice of the Great Supreme. These 



