Zool. [mod.L., f. Gr. βαθύς deep + -βιος living, f. βίος life.] A name given by Prof. Huxley to a gelatinous substance found at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, and at first supposed to be a formless mass of living protoplasm, but now regarded as an inorganic precipitate.
1868. Huxley, in Q. Jrnl. Microsc. Sc., 211. I propose to confer upon this new ‘Moner’ the generic name of Bathybius.
1875. J. W. Dawson, Dawn of Life, iv. 66. The Bathybius … may possibly be merely the pulpy sarcode of sponges.
1884. Sat. Rev., 14 June, 770/2. Below the ooze, and bathybius, and so forth, in the Salaminian bay.
