INTRODUCTORY. 21 



as one of the chief instruments whereby the solid 

 material of the calcareous mud which it pervades is 

 separated from its solution in the ocean-waters." 

 Again, in 1870, Professor Huxley emphasised the 

 discovery by remarking that " the Bathybius formed 

 a living scum or film on the sea-bed extending over 

 thousands upon thousands of square miles ; evidence 

 of its existence having been found throughout the 

 whole North and South Atlantic, and wherever the 

 Indian Ocean had been surveyed, so that it probably 

 forms one continuous scum of living matter girding 

 the whole surface of the earth." 



In 1875 a modification of these views seemed to 

 be imperative, and Professor Huxley proceeded to 

 explain: 1 "Professor Wyville Thomson informs 

 me that the best efforts of the ' Challenger's ' staff 

 have failed to discover Batkybius in a fresh state, 

 and that it is seriously suspected that the thing to 

 which I gave that name is little more than sulphate 

 of lime, precipitated in a flocculent state from the 

 sea-water, by the strong alcohol in which the speci- 

 mens of the deep-sea soundings which I examined 

 were preserved. The strange thing is that this in- 

 organic precipitate is scarcely to be distinguished 

 from precipitated albumen, and it resembles, perhaps 

 even more closely, the proliferous pellicle on the 



' l Nature, August 19, 1875. 



