198 Dr. Wallich on the Origin of the 



they conceived to be vast masses of it in dredging in the 

 North Atlantic, at the same time that thej discovered vast 

 numbers of vitreous sponges whose root-fibres and spicules 

 were densely mixed up with it " like hairs in mortar." The 

 deep-sea explorations on board the ' Challenger ' confirmed 

 the existence over other areas of the ocean besides the North 

 Atlantic, where they had first been found, of like vast accu- 

 mulations of sponges. On this all but conclusive evidence I 

 ventured to assume that Bathyhius^ though not an independent 

 living thing, was not altogether a myth, but veritable sponge- 

 protoplasm. I refer to the circumstance now solely in 

 explanation of my having appended to this paper a figure 

 (PI. XI. fig. 5) of the so-called Bathybius (copied from 

 Hackel's figiu'C, a representation of which is to be found in 

 Sir W. Thomson's ' Depths of the Sea,' p. 412), with a view 

 to show what I mean by an amcebiform outline. It must be 

 recollected, however, that, owing to the nature of the conditions 

 to which a little viscid mass of the kind has unavoidably to 

 be subjected when examined in the microscope, an undue 

 amount of flattening-out must take place. It had evidently 

 taken place in the specimen from which Haeckel's drawing 

 was taken. Heucc, as a perfectly typical specimen of an 

 ^mceZ'a-like form, it might certainly be surpassed. But it 

 has this extraordinary merit — that it is not a figure of Amoehay 

 but, according to my interpretation, of sponge-protoplasm itself' 

 which, for the purposes of the present inquiry, is infinitely 

 more to the purpose than the best figure of an Amoeba could 

 possibly have been. At all events any one looking at it who 

 is also familiar with the appearances exhibited by Amoeba 

 will, at a glance, recognize the identity in character, and have 

 no difiiculty in perceiving that, but for the abnormal flattening- 

 out of the mass by compression just referred to, no more 

 conclusive testimony could have been furnished of the tendency 

 of an organic colloid, and notably of the material itself which 

 is so largely concerned, according to my hypothesis, in the 

 production and determination of the unique but nevertheless 

 undefinable type of irregular form of the flint nodules, to 

 assume the forms in question. 



I would add that I have never said or written, because I 

 have never so believed, that the living sponge-protoplasm has 

 any thing to do with the flint-formation. It stands in the 

 same direct relation to the living parent sponges as the pro- 

 toplasmic investment of a group of Botryllidje, adherent to a 

 mass of rock, does to these organisms ; or the gelatinous 

 thallus, often of great comparative bulk, wiiich surrounds 

 some of the freshwater protophytes. It is only after the 



