SPONOEB. 65 



SPONGES.* 



BY H. J. C.U^TEU, F.R.S., ScC. 



From the age of Alexander the Great, viz., in the fourth century 

 B.C., when, according to Aristotle, sponge icxirbyyos) was "placed beneath 

 helmets and thigh-pieces for the sake of deadening the sound of blows," 

 (? the effect of blows,) almost down to the present time, the OiJficinal 

 Sponge has been considered chiefly in respect to its uses ; and even now 

 a sponge to many is but a sponge in this sense, " and nothing more." 



In these days of objective enquiry, however, the human mind, for 

 the most part, is not so stolid ; but, seeking eagerly, like a mariner for the 

 relation of surrounding objects that he might be the better able to find 

 his own position on the chart, becomes curious, among other things, not 

 only to consider the various uses to which the Officinal Sponge may be 

 applied, but to know what it is, whence it comes, and what position it 

 holds in the great mass of living beings that is spread over the surface of 

 our earth. 



As we view the Officinal Sponge, it is nothing but a resilient, horny 

 tissue, which admirably serves the purposes to which it isgenerally applied, 

 and, looking at it apart from all other connections, we might be inclined 

 to think that it is a product of the earth specially intended for the use of 

 man and nothing else ; but knowing now that there are no " hard and 

 fast lines" in creation, wherein all things are united by gradationary 

 transition, so as to produce universal harmony and one givat whole, we 

 are irresistibly attracted by this view to consider the connections of the 

 Officinal Sponge, and when we find that it is actually the skeleton or organ 

 of support of a once li\ing being, whose varieties are spread over the 

 earth almost as plentifully as plants, we not only become equally desirous of 

 knowing what these are, but of interpreting thereby the real nature and 

 position of the typical sponge through its varietal transition into the 

 other and better known spheres of development of the animal kingdom 

 which surround it. 



Having stated that the Officinal Sponge is an animal product, it will 

 be my business presently to prove this, merely premising now that 

 although very low in our scale of creation, it is a long way on the animal 

 side of the imaginary line of demarcation which separates the animal 

 from the vegetable kingdoms, so that it is absolutely an animal as much 

 as that which produces the coral. 



A sponge, then, may be defined to be a congeries of living beings 

 which, like the coral, produces various kinds of structure in accordance 

 with the species ; of which the Officinal Sponge is one that comes into 

 the market for sale also like the coral, viz., devoid of the soft or more 



'Cowmnnicated I'V Mr. W. R. HuKbci, f'.L.S., to the generU meeticg of the 

 Society, held Tuesday, 2yth June, 1880. On Mr. Carter's behalf, Mr. Hugnes also 

 exhibited typical specimens illustrating the eight orders of Spongida mentioned in 

 Mr. Carier's paper. 



