﻿Sponges. 



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from J. F. James, Cones of Larix Europeans and specimen of Anomalodonta 

 alata; from S. T. Carley, specimens of Unio alatus and Margaritana 

 complanata ; from Jas. R. Challen, specimens of Free Gold in Quartz: 

 from Dr. 0. D. Norton, Kidney Iron Ore ; from D. W. Lewis, Flint Spear 

 Point and Snake; from Wm. R. Moore, specimen of clay from Green 

 Township, Hamilton County, 0.; from Dr. Zipperlen, photograph of 

 Proteus; from Jas. R. Newman, Secretary of State of Ohio, Ohio Agri- 

 cultural Reports for 1880, 1881, 1882. 



SPONGES. 

 By Edward M. Cooper. 



Perhaps no other branch of the Animal Kingdom led early naturalists 

 into so many errors, and has been the cause of so much mistaken conject- 

 ure, as the sponge. Known as it has been from times of the highest an- 

 tiquity, it was to the ancients something between a plant and an animal. 

 Rondelet denied at first the existence of sensibility in sponges, and origi- 

 nated the idea that these productions belonged to the Vegetable Kingdom. 

 An idea which even Linnaeus in the first editions of his " Systema Naturea" 

 supported by the great authority of his name. Afterward, influenced by 

 the convincing labors of Trembly and some other observers, Linnaeus, 

 withdrew the sponges from the Vegetable Kingdom and maintained their 

 animal nature, his views being adopted by the great naturalists of 

 Europe; and the more information we gain on the subject, the more con- 

 vincing is the proof that such a view is correct. For subsequent observa- 

 tions have proved that the living sponge has the power of opening and 

 closing at pleasure its oscula (or large openings) which are capable of 

 acting independently of each other, thus •fully establishing the auimal 

 nature of these simple organizations, in which latterly even traces of sen- 

 sibility have been detected, such as one would hardly expect to meet with 

 in a sponge. For these creatures, as we are entitled to call them, are able 

 to protrude from their oscula, the gelatinous membrane which clothes 

 their channels, and on touching these protruded parts with a needle, they 

 were seen by Mr. Gosse to shrink immediately ; a proof that the sponge, 

 however low it may rank in the Animal World, is yet far from being so 

 totally inert or lifeless as was formerly imagiued. 



Sponges inhabit every sea and shore, and extend to all depths of the 



