89 



algae counts as much, without any change, for ejecting (dissolved) 

 carbohydrates, from which one might think the oildroplets ori- 

 ginating. I shall return to this lateron (11 — 13). 



6. From the same Table 12 it also appears, that in the amoe- 

 bocytes of Spongillae the number of oildroplets in young tissue — 

 the branch-tops (p. 16) — is a trifle smaller than in full-grown 

 tissue — the branch-bases — ; that it is however at its largest in 

 young, old and newly germinated gemmulae, but that it strongly 

 diminishes in the stages of development which follow. Consequently, 

 the oildroplets seem to be consumed by the tissue of germinated 

 gemmulae. 



7. While on the one side it appears from Table 12 that the 

 number of oildroplets in the amoebocytes is not in correlation 

 with the number of green algae carrying an oildroplet — as 

 shown above under 5 — , on the other side we can conclude from 

 the same table that apparently that number of oildroplets (in 

 amoebocytes) is in some correlation with the number of colourless 

 algae without structure, so with the number of dead algae, in 

 the sponge tissue. This would all at once explain the queer fact, 

 mentioned under 5, that in the amoebocytes of colourless sponges 

 from darkness there are somewhat more oildroplets than in those 

 of green ones from light; for we know (p. 59), and it appears 

 again from this. Table 12, that in a sponge in darkness there 

 are more green algae dying than in light. But also the facts 

 mentioned under 6 could be explained in connection with this: 

 in the course of the development of a sponge the total number 

 of dead algae is constantly increasing, according to p. 57, with 

 a considerable decrease in (or shortly after) the gemmule-stage 

 (this also appears in Table 12); so the same should happen to 

 the number of oildroplets per amoebocyte. 



Which, however, is the right connection between the number 

 of oildroplets in the amoebocytes and the dying of the green 

 algae, why this connection must necessarily exist, can only be 

 treated lateron, when I have mentioned all facts concerning it. 



8. In the sponge-tissue occurs a lipase, a fat-splitting enzyme. 

 In Table 13 one finds, how I have pointed out its presence. 



