Nature of the so-called " Bathybius." 337 



loping but little heat, and incurring a very small amount of 

 waste by any manifestation of vital activity." He then dog- 

 matically affirms, without furnishing any thing whatever in the 

 shape of rational proof, that " it is tlie distinctive character of 

 the Protozoa that they have no special organs of nutrition, but 

 that they absorb water through the whole surface of their jelly- 

 like bodies." 



I venture to say that, in all the annals of scientific research, 

 such startling hypotheses succeeded by such facile verification, 

 such unguarded assumptions put forth with the authority of 

 facts, such oracular solutions of most important questions as 

 that involved, first, in the production of substantiatory evi- 

 dence with regard to Bathybius, and, secondly, in the prospec- 

 tive compromise, equally capable of negative or affirmative 

 interpretation, which is apparent in the paragraph in which 

 Dr. Wyville Thomson sums up by saying he " does not think 

 Bathybius is the permanent form of any distinct living being," 

 have never been equalled. 



Though I do not presume to offer myself as an apologist for 

 Prof. Huxley, I fully appreciate the extreme difficulties under 

 Avhich he worked when analyzing material unquestionably 

 altered in its most important characters by the admixture of 

 alcoholic preservative solutions. I can attest, from personal 

 and long-continued experience, that it is simply impossible to 

 arrive at a correct knowledge of the characters of the recent 

 and unadulterated material from material that has been thus 

 preserved. The fact is that there is as marked a distinction 

 between the aspect of pure fresh sponge-protoplasm, for ex- 

 ample, seen instantly on its arrival at the surface, and its 

 aspect a very brief period afterwards, as there is between that 

 of the living Foraminifera or Polycystina of the open ocean 

 immediately after capture, and after they have been consigned 

 to some preservative solution. In addition to other important 

 changes produced in the protoplasm of the Protozoa, both ma- 

 rine and freshwater, by being long kept or preserved in such 

 preservative solutions as alcohol when calcareous matter 

 exists in solution, molecular changes take place, the normally 

 homogeneous protoplasm then frequently being converted into 

 minute globular masses, which, when seen under the micro- 

 scope, resemble sago grains in miniature, and may readily be 

 mistaken for molecular granules of the organism within 

 or upon which they occur. I can produce specimens of 

 Polycystina, and, to a certain extent, of Foraminifera, the rich 

 and varied brilliancy of colour in which has been retained for 

 years, in some cases, even when mounted in balsam 5 but 

 there all identity in the appearance of the soft parts ends : and 

 Ann. & Maq.N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. xvi. 24 



