426 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, xxn 



chemical reactions, he makes a careful proviso against 

 confounding the statement of fact in the description 

 and the interpretation which he proceeds to put 

 upon these facts : 



I conceive that the granulate heaps and the transparent 

 gelatinous matter in which they are embedded represent 

 masses of protoplasm. Take away the cysts which 

 characterise the Radiolaria, and a dead Sphaerozoum 

 would very nearly represent one of this deep-sea " Ur- 

 schleim," which must, I think, be regarded as a new form 

 of those simple animated beings which have recently been 

 so well described by Haeckel in his Monographic der 

 Moneras, p. 210. 1 



Of this he writes to Haeckel on October 6, 

 1868 : 



[This paper] is about a new "Moner" which lies at 

 the bottom of the Atlantic to all appearances, and gives 

 rise to some wonderful calcified bodies. I have christened 

 it Bathybius Haecketii, and I hope that you will not be 

 ashamed of your god-child. I will send you some of the 

 mud with the paper. 



The explanation was plausible enough on general 

 grounds, if the evidence had been all that it seemed 

 to be. But it must be noted that the specimens 

 examined by him and by Haeckel, who two years 

 later published a full and detailed description of 

 Bathybius, were seen in a preserved state. Neither 

 of them saw a fresh specimen, though on the cruise 

 of the Porcupine, Sir Wyville Thomson and Dr. W. 

 B. Carpenter examined the substance in a fresh state, 

 T See Cott. Ess. v. 153. 



