THE FLORIDA COMMERCIAL SPONGES. 



BY HUGH M. SMITH. M. D., 



Assistant in Charge of Inquiry respecting Food-Fishes, United States Fish Commission, 



The sponge fishery of the United States presents the interesting antithesis of an 

 industry restricted to a single State and a product perhaps more generally employed 

 and having a wider range of usefulness than any other article yielded by the American 

 fisheries. There is scarcely a civilized habitation in the country in which the sponge 

 is not in almost daily use. Besides its very general employment for toilet purposes, 

 it is utilized in many other ways in the arts, trades, and professions, and in domestic 

 life the mention of which would prove tedious. 



In this paper it is not expected that much new or original information concerning 

 sponges will be presented. All that is contemplated is to direct attention to certain 

 aspects of the sponge industry, with a view to place it on a sounder basis. The 

 special topics considered are the distribution, form, and peculiarities of the different 

 species 5 their present and past abundance; the extent and causes of the decrease in 

 the supply, as evidenced by a diminished annual catch ; the protection of sponge- 

 grounds j the cultivation of sponges on grounds now barren; and the increase of the 

 productiveness of the industry by the introduction of some of the best grades of 

 European sponges. In order to make the discussion of these subjects clearer to the 

 sponge interests, it is desirable to briefly notice the zoological status of sponges and 

 their methods of reproduction and growth. Reference is also made to the sponge 

 legislation of Florida. Illustrations of the leading grades of marketable sponges are 

 presented; these are based on specimens collected in Florida by the writer. 



THE NATURE AND STRUCTURE OF SPONGES. 



Although for many years the status of sponges whether animal or vegetable was 

 in dispute, the time has long since passed when the right of the sponges to be placed 

 in the animal kingdom was established. Even the propriety of assigning the sponges 

 to a position higher than the lowest animals the protozoa is now conceded, and 

 they are put either in a subkingdom of their own (Porifera) or in a subkingdom 

 (Coelenterata) with the corals, gorgonians, sea-feathers, jelly-fishes, etc. 



The sponge in a natural state is a very different-looking object from what we see 

 in commerce. The entire surface is covered with a thin, slimy skin, usually of a dark 

 color, perforated to correspond with the apertures of the canals. The sponge of 

 commerce is in reality only the home or the skeleton of a sponge. The composition 

 of this skeleton varies in the different kinds of sponges, but in the commercial grades 

 it consists of interwoven horny fibers, among and supporting which are spicula3 of 



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F. C. B. 189715 



