136 TOILERS IN THE SEA. 



male, and some female, no corroboration has been 

 obtained. 



The third mode of reproduction, by the sponta- 

 neous division of the sarcode, or flesh, has long been 

 known, and Dr. Bowerbank has remarked that " the 

 truth appears simply to be that any minute mass 

 of sarcode, whether separated voluntarily or in- 

 voluntarily, has inherent life and locomotive power, 

 and is capable of ultimately developing into a per- 

 fect sponge : and in the course of this process the 

 dermal membrane is produced at a very early 

 period." And afterwards he adds : " Thus every 

 description by these close and accurate observers 

 tend to the conclusion that the multiplication of 

 the sponge is effected by the origination in the 

 egg, or by the agglomeration, in the form of buds, 

 of particles of sarcode. The action of the minute 

 masses of sarcode liberated by the bursting of the 

 envelope of the egg, and their subsequent develop- 

 ment, is precisely that of the so-called sponge cell 

 liberated from the mass of sarcode lining the inter- 

 stices of the sponge, and of the gemmules described 

 by Grant, when sessile, each moves independently 

 at first, each unites with its congeners into one body, 

 and the results, both in means and end, are precisely 

 the same, but their origin is different. The one is 

 a generation of sarcode, within a proper membrane, 

 in the form of an egg, while the others are the pro- 



