Marvels of the Universe 



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In the living state all this intricate and 

 beautiful network of flint is filled in with 

 the fiesh proper of the sponge-creature. 

 It resembles the white of egg and it 

 contains the life principle. Perpetual 

 movement is the order of its existence, so 

 that currents of water, laden with food 

 and other requisites for its sustenance, 

 are always passing in through the tiny 

 openings in the jlattice-work. The water 

 in its passage, deprived of these vital 

 products, passes out through the larger 

 openings on the upper part of the sponge. 



Numberless wonderful lashes, quite 

 below the power of human vision, whip 

 the water along through every portion of 

 the sponge from the numerous entrances 

 to the large openings. 



But this is not all. On bringing the 

 microscope to bear upon the fleshy sub- 

 stance, we find multitudes of exceedingly 

 smaU rods of flint of many shapes. They 

 are too small to be recognized by eye- 

 sight, however keen. Anchors, double 

 anchors, spears, prongs, tridents and many 

 other forms are present. All are composed 

 of flint and appear to form a coat of mail, 

 possibly for giving support to the delicate 

 flesh of the creature. 



The account of the vicissitudes which 

 one of the first Glass Sponges brought 

 from Japan to Europe underwent forms 

 interesting reading. To be very brief, it 

 was looked upon as a clever piece of 

 Japanese skill and was given a prominent 

 place in a collection of Japanese curios 

 by the great naturalist Ehrenberg! Later 

 on it was pronounced to be a dual work 

 of Nature, i.e., a natural glass coil, or 

 " wisp," combined with a coral. It was 

 then removed from the cabinet of Japanese 

 art and placed among a collection of 

 natural history specimens. Here, how- 

 ever, it was put in an inverted position ! 

 It is only fair to the deceived naturalists 

 to explain the true condition of tilings. 

 The Japanese dealer had ingeniously 

 " made up " the so-called composite animal 

 by uniting filaments of the " wisp " to a 



fluAo Iju] 



[If, Batjshaw. 



VENUS„ FLOWER BASKET. 



The apeciea here shown is the moat beautiful of the Glass Sponses. 



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