OF THE NATUKE OF SPON(iES. 39 



coast of Calvados seem to lend support to it.* The func- 

 tions of the oscula are scarcely known, " but observation 

 leads us to conclude that they answer the purpose of intro- 

 ducing water into the central parts of the polypidora ; so 

 that if there are any poh'pi internally they may be sup- 

 plied with the necessary aliment."t 



Lamarck's views are stated with characteristic confi- 

 dence, and are remarkable for then* erroneousness. As he 

 prided himself in assigning correctly the right of prece- 

 dence to every animated being, it would be doing his 

 memory injustice not to mention that sponges are, in his 

 judgment, a higher effort of nature's creative energy than 

 the Sertularise, the celliferous corallines, or even than the 

 madrepores and the true coral I Between the sponges 

 and the Alcyonia there is a demonstrable affinity, the 

 only essential difference between them being the earthier 

 condition of the gelatinous crust which envelopes the latter, 

 so that on drying it consolidates into a coating of a suberose 

 or coriaceous consistence, while in the sponge, fi'om its 

 greater fluidity, it either runs out when the specimen is 

 taken from the water, or leaves only a pellicle behind. 

 Now as it has been proved that the Alcyonia are true po- 

 lypidoms, and that the polypes are less simple than those of 

 many other polypidoms, Lamarck concludes that sponges 

 must be equally the productions of polypes, and of polypes 

 too which must have a structure nearly similar to that of 

 the Alcyonians. J He infers also that the common mass of 



* Hisloire des Polypiers coralligenes flexibles, vulgairenicnt noin- 

 mes Zoophytes, pur J. V. F. Lamouroux, p. 1.3. Caen, 1816. 



t Lib. cit. p. 16; and Corallina, p. 150. Lond- 1824. 



\ " Sans doute, en citant les alcyons, je n'entends pas parler de ces 

 animaux composes, a corps cominun, gelatineiix ct sans polypier, q\ic 



