CHAP. XIV The Simplest Animals 219 



points against science (that is to say against knowledge) always tell 

 the story wrongly, I shall make a digression to tell it rightly. 



In 1857 Captain Dayman, in charge of a vessel engaged in con- 

 nection with cable - laying, discovered on the submarine Atlantic 

 plateau the abundant presence of slimy material which looked as if 

 it were alive. Preserved portions of this formless slime were after- 

 wards described by Huxley, and he named the supposed organism, 

 partly from its habitat, partly after his friend Haeckel, Bathybius 

 Haeckelii. On the Poi'cupine expedition Professors Wyville Thomson 

 and Carpenter observed it in its fresh state, and Haeckel afterwards 

 described some preserved specimens. Its interest lay in its 

 simplicity and apparent abundance ; Oken's dream seemed to be 

 coming true ; it seemed as if life were a-making in the still depths. 

 But when the Challenger expedition went forth, and the bed of 

 the ocean was explored for the first time carefully, the organism 

 Bathybius was nowhere to be found. But this was not all ; the 

 cruellest blow was yet to come. Dr. John Murray saw reason to 

 suspect that Bathybius was not an organism at all, that it could be 

 made in a test-tube, and was nothing but a gelatinous form of 

 sulphate of lime precipitated from the sea water by the action of the 

 alcohol in the preserving vessels. He renounced Bathybius, 

 Wyville Thomson acquiesced, Huxley surrendered his organism to 

 the chemists, and the obscurantists rejoiced exceedingly over the 

 mare's nest. Bathybius became famous, it was trotted out to 

 illustrate the fallibility of science, a useful if it were not a somewhat 

 s»perfluous service. 



But the non-existence of Bathybius was not proved by the fact 

 that the Challenger explorers failed to find it, nor was it certain 

 that Murray's destructive criticism covered all the facts. Haeckel 

 clung with characteristic pertinacity to Bathybius, and his con- 

 stancy has been to some extent justified by the fact that in 1875 

 Bessels, on a North Polar expedition, dredged from 92 fathoms of 

 water in Smith's Sound abundant quantities of a closely -similar 

 slime. He observed its vital movements, and called it Proto- 

 Bathybius. It may be that it consists of the broken-off portions 

 of Foraminifera ; we require to know yet more about it, but I have 

 said enough to show that it is unfair to stop telling the story with 

 the words "mare's nest." But whether there be a Bathybius, a 

 Proto-Bathybius, or no Bathybius at all, we are as students of science 

 compelled to confess our complete ignorance as to the origin 

 of life. 



8. Relation to the Earth, — The floor of the sea for a 

 variable number of miles (not exceeding 300) from the shore is 

 covered with a heterogeneous deposit, washed in great part from 

 the nearest continent. In this deposit shells of Foraminifera usually 



