The History of Creation, Vol. 2 (of 2)

Appendix

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

PLATE FACING TITLE-PAGE.

Developmental History of a Calcareous Sponge (Olynthus). Compare vol. ii. p. 140. The egg of the Olynthus (Fig. 9), which represents the common ancestral form of all Calcareous Sponges, is a simple cell (Fig. 1). From this there arises, by repeated division (Fig. 2), a globular, mulberry-like heap of numerous equi-formal cells (Morula, Fig. 3; vol. ii. p. 125.) As the result of the change of these cells into an outer series of clear ciliated cells (Exoderm) and an inner series of dark, non-ciliated cells (Entoderm), the ciliated larva, or Planula, makes its appearance. This is oval in shape, and forms a cavity in its centre (gastric cavity, or primitive stomach, Fig. 6 g, with an opening (mouth-opening, or primitive mouth, Fig. 6 o); the wall of the gastric cavity consists of two layers of cells, or germ-layers, the outer ciliated Exoderm (e) and the inner non-ciliated Entoderm (i). Thus arises the exceedingly important stomach-larva, or Gastrula, which reappears in the most different tribes of animals as a common larval form (Fig. 5, seen from the surface; Fig. 6, in long section. Compare, vol. ii. pp. 126 and 281). After the Gastrula has swum about for some time in the sea, it fastens itself securely to the sea-bottom, loses its outer vibratile processes, or cilia, and changes into the Ascula (Fig. 7, seen from the surface; Fig. 8, in long section; letters as in Fig. 6). This Ascula is the recapitulative form, according to the biogenetic fundamental law, the common ancestor of all Zoophytes, namely, the Protascus (vol. ii. pp. 129, 133). By the development of pores in the wall of the stomach and of three-rayed calcareous spicules, the Ascula changes into the Olynthus (Fig. 9.) In Fig. 9 a piece is cut out from the stomach-wall of the Olynthus in order to show the inside of the stomachal cavity, and the eggs which are forming on the surface (g). From the Olynthus the most various forms of Calcareous Sponges can develop. One of the most remarkable is the Ascometra (Fig. 10), a stock or colony from which different species, and in fact different generic forms, grow (on the left Olynthus, in the middle Nardorus, on the right Soleniscus, etc., etc.). Further details as to these most interesting forms, and their high importance for the Theory of Descent, may be found in my “Monograph of the Calcareous Sponges” (1872), especially in the first volume. (Compare vol. ii. pp. 160, 167).