308 Mr. H. J. Carter on the Species, Structure, and Animality 
of the year (indeed the greater part of it), to be now again in the 
full performance of all their vital functions. I have not yet been 
able to prove it entirely to my satisfaction by direct experiment, 
but, on the sides of a finger-glass in which I placed an old dried 
portion of No. 1, about a month since, changing the water daily, 
there are now growing atoms of new sponge visible to the naked 
eye, and there are large portions of the original mass adhering to 
other objects in the same vessel ; but I have not yet been able to 
satisfy myself of the presence of new tissue in the latter. 
Supplementary note. — Since writing the above Notes,^"* I have 
had the pleasure of reading Mr. Hogg^s Observations on the 
Spongilla fluviatilis,^^ &c., published in the Transactions of the 
Linnsean Society, vol. xviii. part 3rd, wherein he advocates the 
opinion of its vegetable nature; but when, in support of his 
views, he quotes Dr. Johnston^s remark on Dujardin^s experi- 
ments, p. 396, — viz. that locomotion is no proof of animality ; 
several Alga are locomotive — it must of course mean such 
movements as do not appear to be directed by an instinctive 
power; for there are certain changes of form accompanying 
locomotion which convey an impression to the mind of the pre- 
sence of a guiding influence, beyond anything that is met with 
in the vegetable kingdom, and which would seem to require no 
additional evidence to prove to the observer that he is regarding 
motions peculiar to animal life. Such appear to me to be evinced 
by the young Spongillje. 
Moreover, I have ascertained by experiment, that when the 
transparent spherical capsules which contain the granules within 
the seed-like bodies (in No. 4) are liberated (by breaking open 
the latter under water in a watch-glass), their first act is to burst : 
this takes place during the first thirty- six hours ; and their gra- 
nules, which will presently be seen to be the true ova of a pro- 
teaniform infusorium, varying in diameter from about thel-4300th 
part of an inch to a mere point, gradually and uniformly become 
spread over the surface of the watch-glass. On the second or 
third day (for this varies), each granule will be observed to be 
provided with an extensible, pseudo-pediform base ; and the day 
after most of the largest may be seen slowly progressing by its 
aid, or gliding over the surface of the watch-glass in a globular 
form, by means of some other locomotive organs*. During the 
time that these changes are going on, the smaller gramdes, most 
of which also have an extensible base, amass themselves together 
in irregularly formed portions of granulo-gelatinous matter, 
while a few of the more matured animals, averaging l-300th 
part of an inch in length when extended, may generally be ob- 
* The same changes take place in the granular matter from the dried 
seed-like body. 
