River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1910-07-21

IN THAT eager search for the
IA secret of life-never more jealous
# ly prosecuted than in our day,
and never with more startling and
battling results-the lowest forms
of living organizations take on a
new interest as apparently leading us
nearer and nearer to the narrow por-
tai in that thin partition which sepa-
rates the things that live from all
others. The claims which have been
made that science has been able to
compel inert substances to pass
through this portal and to live are yet
to be verified. In the capacious and
sheltered bosom of the deep sea is
found the home of very many of these
mysteries, and may perhaps be found
their solution and the beginning of
living. Meanwhile, without inquiring
too closely into their genesis, prac-
teal man has laid violent hands on
many of these humber brethren and
made them subject to his daily needs
and luxuries. Chief among these are
the sponges, perhaps the very lowest
Of the PROTOCOL" The long contro-
Versy as to whether they were animal
or vegetable has been terminated by
assigning them to the higher rank;
but they betray a surprising number
Of points of resemblance with the
plants, both in life and death.
To begin with, they effect reproduc-
tion of their kind by gemmation, or
budding, and by true ova or eggs. The
United States government has recent
ly published a learned little pamph-
let by a North Carolina professor on
the feasibility of raising sponges from
the eggs" 1t seems that the two sexes
are found combined in one individual.
The eggs, in great number, are dis
charged through the large apertures,
called oscula, on the surface of the
sponge, and swim off into the big
world as larvae, propelling themselves
Ly the slender hair-like processes of
protoplasm or ella, with which their
solid, oval little bodies are covered.
IN size they frequently attain the
length of a millimeter, one-twenty-fift
of an inch. When bred in the labora-
tory this wandering existence lasts
only day or two; the infant navigator
soon anchors himself to some firm
basis, loses his ella and his oval farm
and aattens down into a minute in
crustation on the rock or other base,
spreading out into an irregular shape.
This becomes a true sponge in funda-
mental structure, but without repro
ductive organs, and the length of time
required to reach the adult stage Is
not yet known.
If living sponge is cut with knife
and the severed portions placed to-
gether, even in a new position, they
speedily reunite; but If the portions
are of different species, no such union
it Is said, ever takes place. If the in.
dividual sponges are brought together
they also coalesce into one, than
which nothing more confusing in the
case of an animal can be conceived
On the other hand, the strong ammo
n1acal odor of the dying sponges on
the decks of the fishing vessel would
the decks of the fishing vessels would
serve to convince beyond doubt the
least sensitive nostrils that this was
Indeed animal life.
In the Levant fisheries, on the coasts
of Canada, Barbary and Syria, the
depth of the water necessitates diving
the diver maintaining his connection
with the boat by cord attached to
a fat, triangular piece of stone which
he takes down with him. These east
ern sponges are much superior in
quality to those from the West In
dies and the coast of Florida.
The American Sponges are classified
as follows by the spongers and buy
ers: Sheepswool, yellow, grass. vel
vet or boat, and glove, with a few 9th
er unimportant varieties. The aver
age value per pound in 1900 was S2.67