162 Dr. J. E. Gray on the Arrangement 



Continent, and in this and in many other particulars it is most 

 misatisfactory." The author of the 'British Sponges' is 

 himself partly to blame for this misconception. Though the 

 writer above referred to places " Bowerbank" after each generic 

 name (as he does after almost every specific name), he does 

 not refer to his paper in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' for 

 1862, in which they were first defined and published. In- 

 deed I believe that many possessors of the ' British Sponges' 

 have no idea that the first volume at least is only a reprint 

 of the papers in the ' Philosophical Transactions,' with inferior 

 copies of the plates ; and therefore they may be easily misled so 

 as to believe that the genera date only from the issue of that 

 work. 



Dr. Bowerbank's work is a rich mine of observation ; and it 

 is astonishing that a naturalist who has collected so many im- 

 portant facts and figured so many spicules should have formed 

 such orders and genera, and have described his species in a 

 manner so incomprehensible. I believe this chiefly arises from 

 his having set himself to work to make an arrangement and 

 nomenclature of the spicules which are in his collection of 

 microscopic slides, rather than to study the sponges themselves. 

 His entire absence of any knowledge of physiology leads him 

 into most extraordinary theories about the uses of the spicules 

 and the organization of the sponges, which are chiefly pro- 

 pounded in his introductory chapter, but equally deform his 

 specific descriptions. In fact he undertook a work that required 

 considerable scientific acquirements without any preliminary 

 training. 



In the ' British Sponges ' the spicules are divided into seven 

 classes, which are again subdivided and at length separated 

 into several hundred kinds, some of them with names long- 

 enough almost to take away one's breath to pronomice them ; 

 and most of these are figured. After all this labour, the forms 

 of the sjDicules are never used as generic characters. The 

 genera often contain spicules that belong to what he considers 

 different classes. Though the difierences of the spicules found 

 in each species form the princijoal part of the specific descrip- 

 tions, the author does not even think it necessary to refer to 

 the figures on his plates which represent the spicules he de- 

 scribes — which is to be regretted, as there can be no doubt that 

 a reference of this kind would have rendered his descriptions 

 more intelligible. In fact the author seems to have collected 

 more material than he knew how to employ, like a soldier 

 with a great stock of ammunition that he does not know how 

 or fears to use. 



In the system of Sponges which I have proposed, certain 



