Abstract
MR. BIDDER is perfectly right. The Aœmbæ described by Mr. Orton are far too large to be metamorphosed collared cells or even young amboid germ cells. The only cells in the sponge (Grantia compressa) which compare with them in size are the full-grown oocytes, and although these are amboid and put out long pseudopodia it is scarcely likely that they would find their way into the gastral cavity, as I have never seen them except in the mesogla between the chambers. My data, from which the actual size of the ambocytes could be calculated, were not at hand when I wrote my letter, and as I had been working with a magnification of 1650 diameters, my ideas of a “rather small” Amba had come to differ considerably from Mr. Orton's. Knowing how abundant ambocytes frequently are in the flagellated chambers of the sponge it seemed almost certain at first sight that any obtained from the gastral cavity would be of the same nature, but evidently I was mistaken, and I am much obliged to Mr. Bidder for directing my attention to the fact.
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DENDY, A. Amœbocytes in Calcareous Sponges. Nature 92, 479 (1913). https://doi.org/10.1038/092479b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/092479b0
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