Nature of the so-called " Bathybius." 325 



regarded by him as integral and essential portions of its struc- 

 ture. It followed, therefore, if the " coccoliths " could be 

 shown to hear no physiological relation whatever to the viscid 

 matter described as protoplasm, but to be purely accidental 

 accompaniments of the matter composing the mud generally, 

 the fabric of Bathybius must fall to the ground. 



It therefore becomes absolutely necessary to recapitulate in 

 this place, not only the history of the " coccoliths " but of the 

 coccospheres, which were first discovered by me in 1860, and 

 were shown, on evidence which can no longer admit of a shadow 

 of doubt, to constitute the complete organism of which the 

 " coccoliths" whether " cyatholiths " or " discoliths" are 

 nothing more than the disjecta membra. Partly on these 

 grounds, but chiefly because my own personal observation had 

 satisfied me that " Bathybius " is the effete product, instead 

 of being the source of any of the vital forces which are already 

 in operation at the sea-bed, I ventured, with confidence in 

 the justice of my cause, though with but too well-founded 

 misgiving regarding the consequences to myself of daring to 

 gainsay the conclusions of so deservedly high an authority as 

 Prof. Huxley, to show that the alleged existence of Bathybius 

 was wholly illusory. 



I may here state that the substance of the present paper was 

 written six months ago, and that within the past six weeks Prof. 

 Huxley has himself virtually acknowledged the error into which 

 he had been betrayed, in a few lines appended to an extract from 

 a letter addressed to him by Dr. Wy ville Thomson, dated Yeddo, 

 June 9, 1875, which was published in ' Nature ' of August 19 

 of the present year. The following is the text of Prof. Huxley's 

 statement : — " Prof. Wy ville Thomson further informs me 

 that the best efforts of the £ Challenger's ' staff have failed to 

 discover Bathybius in a fresh state, and that it is seriously 

 suspected that the thing to which I gave that name is little 

 more than sulphate of lime, precipitated in a flocculent state 

 from the sea-water by the strong alcohol in which the speci- 

 mens of the deep-sea soundings which I examined were pre- 

 served. The strange thing is that this inorganic precipitate is 

 scarcely to be distinguished from precipitated albumen, and 

 it resembles, perhaps even more closely, the proligerous pellicle 

 on the surface of a putrescent infusion (except in the absence 

 of all moving particles), colouring irregularly, but very fully, 

 with carmine, running into patches with defined edges, and 

 in every way comporting itself like an organic thing. Prof. 

 Thomson speaks very guardedly, and does not consider 

 the fate of Bathybius to be as yet absolutely decided. But 

 since I am mainly responsible for the mistake, if it be one, of 



