and Functions of the Sponge. 123 
dispute with different species of the Doris, Ascidia, Actinia 
and myriads of the testaceous mollusca, the possession of a calm 
and secure retreat. At low water I have often punctured and 
irritated the ends of the branches of the oculata , xerampelina , 
prolifer a, and palmata, while hanging, uninjured, from the 
roofs of these caves ; but have never observed the slightest re- 
action or shrinking of any kind produced by the animal. I 
have tried the same on many sessile species covering the rocks, 
and with as little success. I have plunged portions of the 
branched and sessile sponges alive into acids, alcohol, and am- 
jnonia, in order to excite their bodies to some kind of visible 
contractile motions, but have not produced, by these powerful 
agents, any more effect upon the living specimens, than upon 
those which had been long dead. 
Strange as these results may at first appear, in an animal of 
such magnitude and softness, I am happy to find that they per- 
fectly agree with those obtained by the most eminent observers 
on the sponges of warmer latitudes. Bose and Peron could not 
observe the slightest motion in any of the numerous species 
which they collected in their voyages. Spallanzani and Olivi, 
by puncturing and tearing the living animal, could not produce 
the smallest contraction. Cavolini could not produce the 
slightest shrinking of the animals, by piercing and handling 
many of them adhering to the rocks, under water, in the Bay 
of Naples, during a perfectly calm sea. Schweigger performed 
many experiments to discover the contractile power of the living 
sponge, but could not produce the slightest motion in those in- 
habiting the shores of the Mediterranean, although he was mis- 
led by Marsigli and Ellis to believe that the animal had the 
power of sucking in and squirting out water by the feeal orifices. 
I cannot therefore help thinking, that the naturalists of Torona, 
more than twenty centuries ago, and Aristotle, who seems to 
agree with them, came nearer to the truth in denying that the 
living sponge contracts itself, when touched, than Cuvier and 
Lamarck, who maintain at present a contrary opinion. In op- 
position to the observations of so many naturalists, Lamarck ap- 
peals to the testimony of the Greeks, in proof of a contractile 
power existing in the mass of the sponge. The testimony alluded 
to, is contained in the passage of Aristotle, inserted near the 
beginning of this memoir, where the contractions of the living 
