332 
TOUCHING  SPONGES. 
project  he  can  no  longer  control.  For  the  present,  I  am  con- 
tent to  rest  upon  the  analysis  of  the  material  made  (not  for  me, 
or  at  my  request)  by  Messrs.  Johnson  and  Matthey,  corroborated 
as  it  is  by  the  certificate  contained  in  Mr.  Mushet's  last  letter, 
of  ^  the  most  perfect  purity  of  the  sand,'  from  which,  I  am  glad 
to  inform  him,  that  a  steel,  far  surpussing  any  made  by  him, 
has  been  manufactured  by  other  pai'ties,  and  which  will  shortly 
be  introduced,  in  large  quantities,  into  the  market." — Cliem. 
JVewS)  London,  May  11,  1861. 
TOUCHING  SPONGES. 
Ordinary  sponge  is  one  of  those  precious  common  things  which 
largely  contribute  to  the  comfort  of  civilized  man.  Its  uses, 
which  are  very  numerous,  depend  on  its  peculiar  flexibility, 
porosity,  elasticity,  and  compressibility.  In  the  hope  of  finding 
another  substance  with  the  same  properties  equally  well  balanced, 
we  might  ransack  the  three  kingdoms  of  nature  in  vain.  In  the 
attempt  to  replace  this  unique  product  by  a  manufactured  article 
we  miglit  waste  as  much  time  as  the  alchemists  of  old  wasted  in 
their  fruitless  researches.  And  this  wonderful  substance,  for 
which  we  shall  probably  never  find  or  make  a  substitute,  is  pro. 
duced  by  animals  in  which  we  can  discover  no  trace  of  special 
organs — anim  ils  of  so  humble  a  type  that  it  is  difficult  to  draw 
a  line  of  demarcation  between  them  and  the  lowest  plants. 
Every  one  knows  that  ordinary  sponge  is  an  animal  product, 
and  that  it  is  fished  up  from  the  bottom  of  the  sea  by  divers.  I 
have  reason  to  believe,  however,  that  the^  knowledge  possessed 
by  the  majority  of  educated  persons  touching  this  familiar  sub- 
stance is  confined  to  these  two  facts.  Even  well-known  authors, 
who  are  looked  up  to  as  scientific  oracles,  make  dreadful  blunders 
when  they  come  to  write  about  sponge.  In  a  popular  modern 
work  of  reference  now  before  me,  I  find  it  gravely  stated  that 
sponge  is  produced  by  very  small  marine  animals  which  are 
called  Polypi  by  naturalists,  whereas  it  is  formed  by  creatures 
of  another  type  called  Protozoa.  To  enlighten  the  ignorant, 
and  to  dissipate  the  errors  promulgated  by  book-makers,  I  will 
state  a  few  facts,  on  the  authority  of  Dr.  Carpenter,  about 
sponges,  and  other  animals  belonging  to  the  same  sub-kingdom. 
