Mr. H. J. Carter on the Spongozoan. 49 



that this spherical form is maintained by the spongozoa 

 uniting together without the intervention of this substance ? 



This brings me to another point which I wish particularly 

 here to clear up. 



In Prof. James-Clark's footnote (Annals, Jan. 1872, p. 76) it is 

 stated that " he [Carter] has since (viz. in the Annals of 1859, 

 I. c.) revoked that view and adopted another. We believe him 

 to be, excepting the inferred ' ampuUaceous sac,' in the main 

 right in his first interpretation " — that is, of 1857. 



Had Prof. James-Clark chanced to have looked on to my 

 "Notes and Corrections" (Annals, 1861, vol. viii. p. 290), 

 two years afterwards, he would there have seen that which he 

 himself has stated, viz. that I myself then felt right in my 

 interpretations of 1857. 



Time and subsequent observation have explained how all 

 this revoking occurred. The whole has arisen from the poly- 

 morphic ever-changing nature of the soft parts of the sponge. 

 What I saw at first was changed upon my second observa- 

 tions ; and I saw in the third set again what I had proclaimed 

 in the first and denied in the second. In the higher develop- 

 ments there is no dispute as to the nature of structures, because 

 they are permanent and evident ; but in the ever-changing 

 sarcode phenomena are exhibited which certainly, in our pre- 

 sent state of knowledge, are inexplicable ; and the very dif- 

 ference of opinion respecting them to which I have above 

 alluded proves at once that we have as yet no certain data 

 to go upon for any assertions respecting them. What is a 

 mass of sarcode at one moment may be at another in the form 

 of a membrane so delicate as almost to be inappreciable by 

 our senses, and at a third reappear in the form of pseudopodial 

 prolongations. Nay, in ^thalium the sarcode may be seen 

 to divide into separate portions and reunite into one mass, 

 apparently as intimately as drops of water. 



Finally, I have to describe Spongozoon. 



It may be defined to be a spherical polymorphic body or 

 cell, bearing on one part of its circumference an oblong cylin- 

 drical neck-like process, called the rostrum, which supports a 

 delicate cup-like collar, from the centre of which proceeds a 

 long cilium. Internally it contains granular plasma, in which 

 are imbedded a nucleus and one or more contracting vesicles. 

 It possesses the power of taking in crude material for food, 

 and exists in spherical or globular communities imbedded in 

 countless numbers in the sarcodal lining of the areolar cavities 

 of the sponge. Each of these spherical communities is pro- 

 vided with a circular contractile opening on the surface, 

 through which the particles of food enter, to he further taken 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. x. 4 



