Hyatt.] 180 [March 5, 



organs become loaded with carmine, and that after feeding the 

 sponge closed the incurrent and excurrent orifices for a time, and 

 when these were again opened the excrements were abundantly 

 ejected. In 1871 (ibid., vol. vin, ser. 4, p. 6) this close observer 

 confirmed Clark's opinions with regard to the existence of the col- 

 lar, using, however, Sycandra (Grantia) compressa instead of 

 Ascaltis. The inclusions of indigo and carmine by the fhigel - 

 lated and collared cells of the ampullae were observed in this 

 species, but the apparent digestion of the food, as described by 

 Clarke, was not mentioned. Clarke in his article on the " Affini- 

 ties of Spongiae Ciliatae" (Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1868, vol. 

 i, p. 325) states that he saw the particles of food carried down 

 into the collars of the ampullaceous cells of Ascortis fragilis (Leu- 

 cosolenia botryoides), and observed particles of food in the 

 interiors of these cells apparently in different stages of diges- 

 tive decomposition. Saville Kent's descriptions and figure of 

 the manner in which Monosiga gracilis (Man.. Iufus., vol. i, p. 

 327, frontispiece) feeds upon carmine is a fine piece of work and 

 very instructive in this connection. He shows, in this and also 

 other allied forms, that the collar, which is largely developed, 

 becomes an organ for gathering the particles of floating carmine r 

 which travel up its sides and from thence into the interior where 

 they are swallowed, and reappear in the body of the zoon as 

 globular masses inclosed in vacuoles and undergoing the pro- 

 cess of digestion. With such a result before one's eyes it becomes 

 very difficult for an unprejudiced observer to refrain from con- 

 cluding, that the function of the collar is similar in the ampullace- 

 ous cells of Porifera and in Protozoa. 



The researches of MetschmkorT (Zeitschr. Wissen. Zool., vol. 

 xxxii, and of Von Lendenfeld (ibid., vol. xxxvin) naturally excite 

 admiration, but even these cannot be considered as resolving all 

 doubts, especially when Von Lendenfeld and Polaejeff take 

 the extreme ground that the ampullae are solely excretory organs. 

 Von Lendenfeld observed that the cells of the supply system, and 

 those of the ampullae took up the grains abundantly, which, how- 

 ever, they soon after ejected unaltered ; and though not as 

 abundant, the grains of carmine were also present in the cells 

 of the lining membranes of the cloacal canals. The cells 

 of the lining membrane of the tubes of the supply system. 



