487 
S P O N G I A. 
the Indian, and other seas, and is found in almost infinite 
varieties, as to size, thickness and colours; sometimes en¬ 
tirely purple, orange, white or bloom-colour; sometimes 
marked with various streaks, spots, dots or bands. 
2. Spodylus regius.—Shell without ears, and spinous. 
There are four varieties.—-One inhabits India, and one is 
found near Malta, which is very rare. The shell is sub- 
globular ; within it is white; without purplish, scarlet, 
flame-coloured, orange or white; the spines are usually two 
inches long; it is sometimes cylindrical, with a crenate 
margin. 
3. Spondylus plicatus.—Shell without ears or spines, 
plaited.—It is found in India, some parts of America, and 
in the Mediterranean. The shell is white, with yellowish 
reddish, brownish, or violet lines and veins. 
4. Spondylus citreus.—Shell oblong, plaited, spinous. 
The shell is imbricate, about two inches long, and nearly 
as broad; it is of a citron-colour, or red, with an orange 
inner margin. 
SPONGE, s. [j-pongea, Sax.] A soft porous substance, 
supposed by some the nidus of animals. It is remarkable 
for sucking up water. It is often written spunge. See 
Spongia. —Great officers are like sponges : they suck till 
they are full, and, when they come once to be squeezed, 
their very heart’s blood come away. L'Estrange. 
To SPONGE, v. a. To blot ; to wipe away as with a 
sponge.—Except between the words of translation and the 
mind of Scripture itself there be contradiction, very little 
difference should not seem an intolerable blemish necessarily 
to be spunged out. Hooker. —To cleanse with a sponge: 
applied to the act of cleansing cannon.—-To drain; to 
squeeze; to harass by extortion.'—How came such multi¬ 
tudes of our nation, at the beginning of that monstrous re¬ 
bellion in the year 1641, to be spunged of their plate and 
money ? South. —To gain by mean arts. 
Here wont the dean, when he’s to seek. 
To spunge a breakfast once a week. Swift. 
To SPONGE, v. n. To suck in as a sponge; to live by 
mean arts; to hang on others for maintenance.—The ant 
lives upon her own honesty; whereas the fly is an intruder, 
aud a common smell-feast, that spunges upon other people’s 
trenchers. L'Estrange. 
SPO'NGER, s. One who hangs for a maintenance on 
others.—A generous rich man, that kept a splendid and 
open table, would try which were friends, and which only 
trencher-flies and spongers. L'Estrange. 
SPONGIA, the Spunge, in Natural History, a genus of 
the class and order vermes zoophytes. The Generic Cha¬ 
racter is as follows:—Animal fixed, flexile, torpid, of various 
forms, composed either of reticulated fibres, or masses of 
small spines, interwoven together, and clothed with a gelati¬ 
nous flesh, full of small mouths on its surface, by which it 
absorbs and rejects water. There are about fifty species, of 
which nine or ten belong to this country. 
The sponges consist of a ramified mass of capillary tubes, 
that were formerly supposed to he the production of a 
species of worms, which are often found within these cavi¬ 
ties; an idea, however, which is now generally exploded. 
Others have imagined them to be only vegetable produc¬ 
tions: that they are, however, possessed of animality, appears 
evident, from the circumstance of their pores alternately con¬ 
tracting and dilating, and from their even shrinking, in 
some degree, from the touch, when examined in their native 
situations. Their structure enables them, it is thought, to 
absorb nourishment from the surrounding fluid. Sponges 
are the most torpid of all the zoophytes. The individuals 
differ very much from each other in form and structure. 
Some of them, as the Spongia officinalis, or common sponge, 
are of no determinate figure, but others are cup-shaped, 
tubular, &c.; irregularly formed, porous, rough, lobed, 
and woolly. These are very numerous. We give a few of 
the most remarkable. 
1. Spongia ventilabrum.—Fan-shaped, regular, soft, with 
reticiilate woody veins, covered with pores like those of a 
honey-comb. It is found in the Norwegian and American 
seas ; sbout six inches high, and five broad: it exactly re¬ 
sembles a small gorgonia flabellum in its shape and ramifi¬ 
cations, except that the pores are angular, and the substance 
is spongy. 
2. Spongia flabelliformis.—Fan-shaped, orbicular, carti¬ 
laginous, with square articulate fibres.—This species inhabits 
the Indian and Red seas. It is from six to eight inches in 
height, and four or five broad, and resembles the venti¬ 
labrum. 
3. Spongia infundibuliformis.—This is funnel formed, 
flexile, with the surface more or less roughened.—It inhabits 
the Mediterranean and Indian seas, adhering to rocks, and 
is from six to eighteen inches in diameter; in colour it is 
a pale brown, and less tenacious than common sponge. 
4. Spongia fistularis.—Tubular, simple, brittle, and grow, 
ing gradually larger.—It inhabits the Indian Ocean, is from 
three to four feet long: when dry it is blackish fulvous. 
5. Spongia coronata.—Minute, consisting of a single tube, 
and crowned at the tip with a ray of spines.—This is found 
in our own country, on the Sussex coast: its colour is of a 
pale yellow; the rays that compose the crown are of a bright 
pearl yellow, hollow, and open at the top; and when seen 
through a magnifier, it appears covered with little rising- 
points. 
6. Spongia officinalis.—This species is irregularly formed, 
porous, tough, lobed, woolly. It is elastic, and very full of 
holes ; it grows into irregular lobes of a woolly consistence, 
and generally adheres, by a very broad base, to the rocks.— 
It is chiefly found about the islands in the Mediterranean, 
where it forms a considerable article of commerce. A va¬ 
riety of small marine animals pierce and gnaw into its 
irregular winding cavities. These appear on the outside, by 
large holes raised higher than the rest. When it is cut per¬ 
pendicularly, the interior parts are seen to consist of small 
tubes, which are divided into branches as they appear on the 
surface. These tubes, which are composed of reticulated 
fibres, extend themselves every way, by this means increasing 
the surface of the sponge, and ending at the outside in an 
infinite number of small circular holes, which are the pro¬ 
per mouths of the animal. Each of these holes is sur¬ 
rounded by a few erect pointed fibres, that appear as if 
woven in the form of little spines. The tubes, with their 
ramifications, in the living state of the sponge, are clothed 
with a gelatinous substance, properly called the flesh 
of the animal. When the sponge is first taken, it has a 
strong fishy smell, and the fishermen take great care in 
making it perfectly clean, in order to prevent its growing- 
putrid. 
7. Spongiaoculata.—Porous, soft, andverymuch branched, 
the branches a little compressed, erect, and often uniting 
together. This inhabits the British seas. It is from five 
to ten inches high, of a pale yellow colour; the branches 
end obtusely, 
8. Spongia palmata.—This species is, as its name im¬ 
ports, palmate, with finger-like divisions round the sur¬ 
face ; the pores are a lit tie prominent, and irregularly 
disposed.—-It inhabits the Sussex coast; it is of a reddish 
colour, inclining to yellow, with a soft woolly substance, 
like spongia oculata. 
9. Spongia prolifera.—Flat, with numerous palmate 
branches, ending in finger-like divisions.—It is found in 
the North American seas; grows in large bunches, is about 
six inches high, very porous, reticulate within, and full of 
minule spines on the outside. 
10. Spongia botrveides.—This is a very tender species, 
is branched, and covered with bunches of ovate tubercles, 
open at the top.—It inhabits the British coasts; is of a bright 
shining white colour; the bunches are made up of oblong, 
oval tuhercles, like grapes, open at the end. The surface, 
when seen through magnifiers of considerable power, seems 
covered with masses of three-rayed spinous stars. 
11. Spongia panicea.—Irregularly formed, whitish, soft, 
very tender, and full of minute pores.—It inhabits the seas 
between this country and Holland, intermixed with fuci, and 
other 
