126 HANDY BOOK OF 



firm parts, forms the real spongcous skeleton, and makes 

 the mass larger. 



Sponges are progagated in a strange way. At certain 

 seasons, the walls of the canals are covered with countless 

 small dots or bodies, which are the spores, or young eggs, 

 of the sponge. As they become larger, they grow covered 

 with cilia, and soon quit the maternal body, to flow out 

 into the open sea. Here they swim about freely for a time, 

 by means of the constant motion of their cilia, till they 

 attach themselves to some fixed object, in which they can 

 await their further development. From this moment their 

 wanderings cease, and a quiet vegetative life is substituted 

 for the adventurous nomadizing. From this history of 

 their development it might seem as if the Sponges could not 

 be denied an animal nature ; but the spores of the sea-weed 

 enjoy the same privilege of a movable life, so that this is 

 no distinguishing mark between the animal and vegetable 

 kingdoms. The common sea, or bathing Sponge (fyongia 

 communis), which plays so useful a part in our households, 

 is usually obtained from the islands of the Archipelago, 

 where it is attached to reefs, and forms a considerable 

 article of trade. The "West Indies also supply useful 

 Sponges. Burnt Sponge is still employed as an effectual 

 remedy in cases of goitre, and owes its medicinal power 

 to the iodine, bromine, and carbonate of lime which are 

 found in the ashes. 



We close our book with a few remarks on the dependence 

 of all created beings on time and space. 



Of the countless animal and plant varieties which inhabit 

 the globe, each finds only at one spot of it all those climatic 

 influences and conditions of soil combined in which its life 

 attains perfection. Some, gifted with a more yielding or a 



