||Ba*thyb"i*us (?), n. [NL., fr. Gr.
baqy`s deep + bi`os life] (Zoöl.) A
name given by Prof. Huxley to a gelatinous substance found in mud dredged
from the Atlantic and preserved in alcohol. He supposed that it was free
living protoplasm, covering a large part of the ocean bed. It is now known
that the substance is of chemical, not of organic, origin.