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marked degenerative changes, which may be of such a char- 
acter that the living tissue quite separates from the skeleton 
and breaks up into compact cords of cells showing active 
amoeboid phenomena. The cords further constrict into 
rounded masses the likeness of which to gemmules is pointed 
out. Maas states that he is not yet in a position to say 
whether these masses have the power to transform into 
sponges, but adds that some of his observations induce him 
to believe that this is possible. 
It is evident that Maas, working on very different forms, 
has independently met with the same degenerative-regenera- 
tive phenomena as are described in this communication, the 
essential facts of which were presented (together with an ex- 
hibit of gemmule-like degeneration masses and young 
sponges into which such masses had transformed) at the re- 
cent December meeting of the American Society of Zoolo- 
gists. I may add that more than two years ago at the end of 
the summer of 1904, in my official report (unpublished since 
the research was still in progress) to the Bureau of Fisheries 
on the investigation under my charge, I described the degen- 
erative phenomena in Microciona and Stylotella, i. e., the for- 
mation under certain conditions of confinement of minute 
masses presenting a likeness to gemules, and emphasized the 
probability that these masses were able to regenerate the 
sponge. It was not, however, until the summer of 1906 that 
I was able to demonstrate the truth of this view. 
University of North Carolina. 
! Chapel Hill, N. C., 
February 16, 1907. 
