with some Remarks on the Nature of the Spongise Marinse. 403 



sels, and the returning- fluid descends by other and different vessels. Yet I 

 have been told by an excellent naturalist, that a species has been discovered 

 in the Caspian Sea vrhich does not possess any oscules : and according to 

 M. Lamouroux, many more of the Sponges are destitute of them ; for he has 

 justly remarked, "Beaucoup d'Eponges sont privies de ces oscules; ainsi 

 leur presence ou leur absence, leur grandeur, leur forme, leur situation, 

 peuvent fournir de bons caract^res pour faire des sections ou definir des 

 esp^ces*." ^■'» ^ 



Wherefore the same important agency of an endosmosis, and a consequent 

 exosmosis, in pursuance of the valuable discoveries of M. Dutrochet, can alone 

 I think account for the existence of these currents under all the circumstances 

 here alluded to. One, if not the chief, use of these continuous currents seems 

 clearly to be, to convey nutritive matter in a liquid state, as mixed or assimi- 

 lated with the water, to the innermost portions of the Sponge after the like 

 manner in which plants receive their food or nourishment. 



Next, the smells or odours which the different Sea Sponges give out in their 

 fresh and dried and burnt f states, resemble far more those of certain vege- 

 tables than those of animals, although it is well ascertained that several spe- 

 cies have a decided animal smell :{:; so likewise some of the Algce possess a 

 strong putrid odour like decayed animal matter, and which, on the applica- 

 tion of certain acids, becomes ammoniacal ; hence, then, no proof can be de- 

 rived from these facts in favour of the supposed animality of the Sponges. 

 And this circumstance has been long ago properly commented upon by M. La- 

 mouroux in these words : " Des zoologistes ont class6 les Eponges parmi les 

 animaux, a cause de I'odeur qu'elles repandent fraiches et au sortir de la mer, 

 ou pendant qu'on les brule. Ce caract^re ne pent servir, la majeure partie 



* See Lamouroux, Hist. Polyp. Coral. Flex. p. 15. 



t In Solander and Ellis's work on Zoophytes, p. 184, it is said of the Common Sponge {Spongia 

 officinalis), " When they are first taken out of the sea they have a strong fishy smell; and when the 

 Sponge is burnt the smell soon discovers its animal nature." This latter fact has been constantly 

 copied by most English authors ever since the publication of that work, and has been incorrectly 

 esteemed as a test decisive of the animality of Sponges. See. also Montagu's note t at p. 73. vol. ii. 

 part 1. of the Wern. Mem. Again, Montagu has {op. cit. p. 76, in note *) observed on the Fresh- 

 water Sponge, that " this fibrous brittle substance is evidently of animal origin by its odour in com- 

 bustion." t Refer to p. 96 of Edinb. Phil. Journ. vol. xiii. 



