338 On the true Nature of the so-called " Bathybius." 



so it must be with any protoplasmic matter. On the other 

 hand, every one conversant with the behaviour of viscid fluids 

 such as albumen, when squeezed between the glass slide and 

 cover for the purpose of microscopic examination, will no 

 doubt recollect how constantly, partly through capillary at- 

 traction and partly through the faint elasticity resident in such 

 substances, movements, which simulate vital ones, may be ob- 

 served. But Prof. Thomson has distinctly asserted that in the 

 examples cited above by him there " can be no doubt that the 

 gelatinous matter manifested the phenomena of a very simple 

 form of life "*. 



I submit that the case has been widely different as re- 

 gards Drs. Carpenter and Wyville Thomson's opportunities. 

 They undoubtedly enjoyed opportunities of the first order for 

 arriving at the truth on this question. For, whilst Prof. 

 Huxley's original observations with respect to " Bathybius " 

 were based on the microscopical analysis of materials which 

 had been bottled up for upwards of ten years in alcohol, and 

 the whole bulk of which might have been estimated in grains, 

 the u remarkable confirmation " which the reputed discovery 

 was alleged to have received almost immediately afterwards 

 was based on a dredging made by Drs. Carpenter and 

 Thomson at a depth of 650 fathoms ; in describing which they 

 triumphantly state that u Our Dredge " brought up 2^ cwt. of 

 mud at a haul f — a quantity which, in less accomplished hands, 

 and with far less perfectly organized means than Drs. Carpenter 

 and Thomson commanded, might have sufficed to elicit the 

 truth from the sea-bed. It may fairly be assumed that Drs. 

 Carpenter and Thomson examined some of this mud as soon as 

 their dredge arrived at the surface ; for we are told that " the 

 mud was actually alive ; it stuck together in lumps as if there 

 were white of egg mixed with it ; and the glairy mass proved 

 under the microscope to be living sarcode. Prof. Huxley re- 

 gards this as a distinct creature, and calls it l Bathybius ' "\. 

 With reference to this statement, it seems quite impossible to 

 understand how, in the perfectly fresh material which Prof. 

 Wyville Thomson so graphically describes, this " glairy mucus, 

 proved to be living sarcode" and which was said above to be 

 the veritable " Bathybius,' 1 ' 1 can really be " little more than sul- 

 phate of lime, precipitated in &ftocculent [!] state from the sea- 

 water by strong alcohol" ! 



* Depths of the Sea, p. 410. 



t " Preliminary Report,'' by Drs. Carpenter and Thomson (Proc. Roy. 

 Soc., Dec. 17, 1868, pp. 175 & 190). 



X Prof. Thomson, " On the Depths of the Sea," Annals and Magazine 

 of Natural History, Aug. 1809, p. 121. 



