May 11, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
905 
making use of a knife, and puts them under his arm ; 
he then pulls the cord by which the signal is given to 
his companions to haul him up. Practice enables these 
sponge divers to stay under the water for a considerable 
time, in some instances as long as two minutes, although 
the average time of submersion is not more than eighty 
seconds. 
Another mode of obtaining the sponge is by means 
of a pronged instrument. This is the plan adopted 
by the Greeks in the Morea, and also by those engaged 
in the sponge fisheries of the AVest Indies and coast of 
Florida, but the sponges thus obtained are generally 
torn, and sell at a low price. On removing the sponge 
from the water the gelatinous matter, which is of a 
brownish-yellow colour, and of a decidedly fishy odour, 
begins to run freely from it; it is necessary, however, 
to hasten this process in order to prevent the evil effects 
of putrefaction. For this purpose the sponge gatherers 
dig round, shallow holes in the sand along the shore 
filled with water, in these the living sponges are placed, 
and then trampled upon until their canals are entirely 
free of the gelatinous protoplasm, and nothing remains 
but the keratose skeleton known as the sponge of com¬ 
merce, together with a certain quantity of sand taken in 
at the pores during this process, and which is got rid of 
afterwards. Of the two principal kinds of sponges 
brought into the English market, namely, the Mediterra¬ 
nean and the West Indian, the former are the most highly 
valued; and of these the sponges found in Turkish waters, 
and especially those along the coast of Crete, fetch the 
highest price in the market. They are known as 
Smyrna or Turkey or Greek sponges, and may generally 
be distinguished by their cup-like shape. They grow 
in masses from the size of a man’s fist to that of his 
head, and as compared with the ‘ horse ’ sponge of the 
Barbary coast, or the huge species found in the AVest 
Indies and known as the ‘ Bahama ’ sponge, they are 
much closer and softer in texture, and less liable to 
tear. They appear to be somewhat rapid in their 
growth, as it has been noticed that a period of two years 
usually suffices to renew the crop of sponges on spots 
that had been laid almost bare by the sponge divers. 
The importance of this branch of industry appears 
from the quantity of sponges which are annually im¬ 
ported by Great Britain alone. The total import for 
1889 amounted to 1,221,000 lb. of sponge, valued at 
£157,000, of which from 200,000 lb. to 300,000 lb. 
came from the ports of the Mediterranean, and the 
remainder from the AVest Indies and the north 
Atlantic ports. 
Although the term ‘ sponge ’ is usually associated in 
our minds with the commercial article, there are many 
other forms totally unlike, but which are as much en¬ 
titled to the name as are those on our toilette table. 
Of' these our own country possesses many species, none 
of which, however, have either the softness or the 
elasticity which gives its main value to the sponge of 
commerce. Dr. Bowerbank, who has written a valuable 
monograph on the British sponges, divides the class into 
three orders. The Calcarea , or those in which limy 
matter predominates ; the Silicea , or those in which 
silica or flint forms the chief ingredient, and this order 
includes most of our British sponges; the third di¬ 
vision is the Keratose , or those in which a horny sub¬ 
stance known a3 keratose , forms either the entire skele¬ 
ton or the greater part of it, and it is to this order that 
the sponges of commerce belong. 
Among British sponges the following may be 
noticed:—The fresh-water sponge—*S 'pong ilia Jluviatilis, 
which abounds in our rivers and canals. It is of a green 
colour when growing in situations exposed to the sun’s 
rays, and of a dirty brown when otherwise situated. It 
is a curious fact that its green colour is owing to the 
presence in it of chlorophyll, the substance to which 
the leaves of plants owe their colour. The ILali- 
chondria puuicea, foimd coating many of the rocks 
along our coasts. In this sponge the oscula are very 
distinctly seen, forming, as they do, the summits of 
little tubular eminences. A section of this, placed in a 
drop of water, under the microscope, shows jets of the 
most beautiful and varied colours issuing from the oscula 
like molten lava from the crater of a volcano. The 
several species of Cliona are remarkable for their habit of 
boring into the shells of mollusks, and thus causing the 
creature inside to form layer after layer of shell in order 
to keep back the would-be intruder. 
Of foreign non-economic sponges, by far the most won¬ 
derful is tlie‘ A r enus’ Flower Basket,’— lHupk della Aspergil¬ 
lum —certainly one of Nature’s loveliest works. It consists 
of a tubular body about one foot in length, and from one to 
two inches in diameter, composed of abeautifully interlaced 
network of siliceous spicules, with its base enclosed in a thick 
tuft of siliceous glass-like threads, and its upper extremity 
closed by a curious piece of siliceous basket wmrk. It is 
found in the Philippine Islands, where it is known as 
the Eegadera or ‘ Watering-pot,’ and is still supposed by 
the inhabitants to be the workmanship of a crab, from 
the fact that one and sometimes two crab-like crustaceans 
are generally found shut up in the hollow of the sponge. 
The lid-like covering at the upper extremity of tho 
Euplectella is the portion of the skeleton last formed, so 
that the crab must make the sponge its habitation while 
it is open at the one end, and thereafter must remain a 
lerisoner for life, dependent for its subsistence upon any 
food that may gain entrance through the network of its 
prison. These sponges are found at a depth of about 
130 fathoms on a mud bank three miles from the coast of 
one of the Philippine Islands, where they are dredged 
for by the natives. AVhen taken out of the water, they 
are of a dirty yellowish colour, but by washing in fresh 
water and exposure to the bleaching influence of the 
atmosphere they become a pure w r hite, the condition in 
which they are usually brought to this country. The 
first entire specimen—that described by Owen in 1841, 
and now in the British Museum—was sold for £30, but 
of late years they have become more plentiful, and in 
1867 were selling at between £3 and £4. Another 
sponge, found in Japanese waters and known as tho 
‘ glass rope,” is somewhat allied to the Euplectella. It 
was first described as a vegetable production under the 
name of the «glass plantsubsequently Prof. Ehren- 
berg and others regarded it as an artificial production 
with which the Japanese sought to impose upon the 
credulity of the “AVestcrn Barbarian,” but now it is 
recognized as the type of the genus Jhjalonema of 
sponges. 
AVe are all acquainted with tho many uses, both in 
domestic economy and surgical operations, to which 
sponge is applied, and for which its power of absorbing 
liquids and of retaining them until forced out by com¬ 
pression, combined with its delicious softness, peculiarly 
adapts it. Formerly sponges were burned, and when 
reduced to a powder used as a remedy for scrofula, but 
any virtue it possessed was entii’cly owing to tho 
presence of iodine and bromine, substances which aro 
now obtained in larger quantities from other sources.. 
Sponges of all kinds are rich in nitrogen, containing 
about 16 per cent, of it, and where they abound in 
sufficient quantities on our coasts might be profitably 
manufactured into a valuable manure. One species 
Spongia tomentosa —found on the coasts of England and 
North America, raises blisters when rubbed on the skin, 
a power which can be intensified by previously drying 
it in an oven. These aro some of the uses to which man 
has, or might apply the sponge ; but what, it may be 
asked, is its use in the economy of nature ? It does not 
appear* to constitute the food of any other class of animals , 
and though various mollusks and other creatures man 
habitually dwell in the network of certain of its species, 
yet, as Dr. Johnston remarks, “these are too trivial 
offices for so large and widely spread a family , and the 
same writer thinks that “ probably the power which its 
