308 Mr. H. J. Carter on the Species, Structure , and Animality 



of the year (indeed the greater part of it), to be now again in the 

 full performance of all their vital functions. I have not yet been 

 able to prove it entirely to my satisfaction by direct experiment, 

 but, on the sides of a finger-glass in which I placed an old dried 

 portion of No. 1, about a month since, changing the water daily, 

 there are now growing atoms of new sponge visible to the naked 

 eye, and there are large portions of the original mass adhering to 

 other objects in the same vessel ; but I have not yet been able to 

 satisfy myself of the presence of new tissue in the latter. 



Supplementary note. — Since writing the above " Notes,^^ I have 

 had the pleasure of reading Mr. Hogg's " Observations on the 

 Sponffilla fluviatilis," &c., published in the Transactions of the 

 Linnsean Society, vol. xviii. part 3rd, wherein he advocates the 

 opinion of its vegetable nature; but when, in support of his 

 views, he quotes Dr. Johnston's remark on Dujardin's experi- 

 ments, p. 396, — viz. that " locomotion is no proof of animality ; 

 several Alga are locomotive -/' — it must of course mean such 

 movements as do not appear to be directed by an instinctive 

 power; for there are certain changes of form accompanying 

 locomotion which convey an impression to the mind of the pre- 

 «ence of a guiding influence, beyond anything that is met with 

 in the vegetable kingdom, and which would seem to require no 

 additional evidence to prove to the observer that he is regarding 

 motions peculiar to animal life. Such appear to me to be evinced 

 by the young Spongillse. 



Moreover, I have ascertained by experiment, that when the 

 transparent spherical capsules which contain the granules within 

 the seed-like bodies (in No. 4) are liberated (by breaking open 

 the latter under water in a watch-glass), their first act is to burst : 

 this takes place during the first thirty-six hours ; and their gra- 

 nules, which will presently be: seen to be the true ova of a pro- 

 teaniform infusorium, varying in diameter from about thel-4300th 

 part of an inch to a mere point, gradually and uniformly become 

 spread over the surface of the watch-glass. On the second or 

 third day (for this varies), each granule will be observed to be 

 provided with an extensible, pseudo-pediform base ; and the day 

 after most of the largest may be seen slowly progressing by its 

 aid, or gliding over the surface of the watch-glass in a globular 

 form, by means of some other locomotive organs*. During the 

 time that these changes are going on, the smaller granules, most 

 of which also have an extensible base, amass themselves together 

 in irregularly formed portions of granulo-gelatinous matter, 

 while a few of the more matured animals, averaging l-300th 

 part of an inch in length when extended, may generally be ob- 



♦ The same changes take place in the granular matter from the dried 

 seed-like body. 



