120 TOILERS IN THE SEA. 



the same kind as that of the higher animals, but of a 

 peculiar half-transparent gelatinous substance, not 

 altogether unlike isinglass jelly in appearance, and 

 called sarcode. This substance corresponds to what 

 we call flesh, but simpler in its organisation, and little 

 more than a pellucid jelly ; there is no other, or 

 better, name which can be applied to it, since to call 

 it flesh would be to confound it with something else, 

 which it is not ; but sarcode really means that it is 

 " something like flesh ; " therefore let it be sarcode. 

 This substance is thinly spread all over the internal 

 tissues, although not perfectly smooth, for sometimes 

 it abounds in little obtuse elevations, separating occa- 

 sionally into innumerable roundish or oval masses of 

 variable size. Under a moderately high power of the 

 microscope these masses are seen to contain granules 

 of apparently extraneous matter in a shrivelled or 

 collapsed condition. Occasionally there are found 

 intermixed numerous flattened nucleated coloured 

 cells, immersed in the sarcode. 



Dr. Bowerbank says that " while the sponge, as a 

 whole, is sensitive and amenable to disturbing causes, 

 the sarcode does not appear to be especially so, as I 

 have frequently observed a minute parasitical worm 

 passing rapidly over the sarcode surface, and biting 

 pieces out of its substance, without apparently 

 creating the slightest sensation to the sarcode, or at 

 all interfering with the general action of the internal 



