OF THE NATURE OF SPONGES. 55 



in liis system.* In liis first work Lamouroux erred less, 



for he acknowledged the nigh relationship between the ma- 

 rine and the fresh-water sponges, wliich, indeed, he says 

 are chiefly distinguished by their residence. The latter 

 " resembles the marine Spongia by the gelatinous mucus 

 which surroimds the mass and fibres, and which disap- 

 pears on desiccation ; by the very fetid smell it ^delds 

 when bm'ning or decomposing, and also by the quantity of 

 lime extracted from its ashes, which even sometimes exceeds 

 half the weight of the dried polj'pidom." f Subsequent- 

 ly, however, Lamouroux became almost convinced that the 

 fresh-water sponges were plants. The smell, the colour, 

 the action of the air, of heat, of humidity and light, the to- 

 tal absence of the gelatinous fugacious crust of sponges, 

 represented only by an imctuous substance like that which 

 covers certain Charse, and the existence of opake seeds at 

 certain seasons of the year, whose nature is yet unknown, 

 — all these characters were remote from marine sponges, 

 and seemed to associate the fresh- water ones with the algae, f 



The truth is, to borrow the remark of IMr Bell, the 



old adage, " quot homines, tot sententise," was scarcely 

 ever more applicable than to the opinions entertained of 

 the fresh-water spongoid bodies : they are like Polonius's 

 cloud, — a camel, a whale, or what you please. § The re- 

 mark was made not many months before the publication 



* Anim. s. Vert. ii. p. 99 See also Bosc's Hist. Nat. des Vers, iii. 



p. 166. 



t Corallina, p. 147—8. 



I Exposition Methodique des genres de I'ordre des Polypiers, avec 

 leur description et celle des principales especes, figurees dans 84i>]anehcs ; 

 les 63 premieres appartenaiit a I'liistoire naturellc des Zooi)hytes d' Ellis 

 et Solander. Par J. Lamouroux, D. E. S. p. 28. Paris, 1821, ^to. 



§ Zoological Journal, i. p. 202. 



