Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-01-23
THE LIFE OF A SPONGE.
ITS DEVELOPMENT FROM ARTICLES
OF PRoToPLAsM.

How the Work of Nutrition Is Carried
On Peculiar CharacteristIcs of a Very
Common Article--A Familiar Scientific
Talk by Noted Man.
First Of all we may note that sponge.
as we know it in common life, is the
horny skeleton or framework which was
made by and which supported the liv-
ing parts. These living parts consist of
minute masses of that living jelly to
which the name of protoplasm has been
applied This, in truth, is the universal
matter Of life. 1t is the one substance
with which life everywhere is associated,
and as we see it simply in the sponge. SO
also we behold it (only in more complex
guise) in the man.
Now the Irving parts of this dried,
castaway sponge were found both in its
| interior and on its surface. They lined
the canals that everywhere permeate the
sponge like substance, and microscopic
examination has told us a great deal
about their nature. For whether found
in the canals of the sponge themselves or
Embedded in the sponge substance, the
living sponge particles are represented
each by asemi-independent mass of proto-
plasln. So that the first view would have
you take of the sponge as living mass is
that it is colony and not single unit
1t is composed, in other words, of aggre-
gated masses of living particles which
bud out one from the other and manufac-
ture the supporting skeleton we know as
c11p f,f
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE.
Under the microscope these living
sponge units appear in various guises and
shapes. Some Of them are formless, and
as to shape, ever altering masses, resem-
bling that familiar animalcule of our
pools we know as the ammba The
members Of the sponge colony form the
bulk Of the population. They are i'm
bedded in the sponge substance; they
wander about through the meshes of the
sponge; they seize food and flourish and
grow; and they probably give origin to
the eggs from which new sponges are
in due course produced.
More characteristic, however, are Ger
tain units of this living sponge colony
Ni4iNiI ~ Z III dllS Vi lilG
canals. In point of fact. a sponge is a
kind Of Venice, a certain proportion of
whose inhabitants, like the famous queen
of the Adriatic herself lived on the
banks of the waterways Just as in
Venice we find provisions for the deni-
zens of the city brought to the inhabi-
tants by the canals, so from the water,
which, as we shall sec, is perpetually cir
culating through a sponge. the members
of the sponge colony receive their food.
Look at sponge fragment. You per-
ceive half dozen large holes or so, each
opening on a little eminence, as it were
These apertures, bear in mind, we call
oscula. They are the exits of the sponge
dominion. But IA close inspection of a
sponge shows that it is rddled with finer
and smaller apertures. These latter are
the pores, and they form the entrances
to the sponge domain. On the banks Of
the canal you may see growing plenti-
fully in summer time a green sponge,
which is the common fresh water spe-
cies.
Now if You drop a living specimen of
/ this species into bowl of water, and put
some powdered indigo into the water,
you may note how the currents are per
petually being swept in by the pores and
out by the oscula.