STRUCTURE OF CORALS. 109 



fortunate enough to make. We must avail ourselves of the labours 

 of others — or what would be the use of books ? What would the 

 mechanical engineer do without his tables of strength of materials ! 

 What the civil engineer without his constants — all of them the 

 results of the labours of their predecessors ? And, if we be taller 

 than our fathers, is it not because we are hoisted on their 

 shoulders ? 



In this spirit, therefore, I now propose to lay before you a brief 

 account of Corals. 



1st. Their history — ancient and modern. 

 2nd. Their place and analogies in zoology. 



3rd. Their structure — development — modes of offence and dejence, 

 and their works* 



The time at my disjDOsal will not admit of more than a sketch — 

 yet I hope a trustworthy one, of a very large subject. 



A very fanciful origin has been found for the word Coral, by 

 which it was said to have been derived from two Latin words — 

 " Cor "=the heart ; " alere "=to nourish. This idea is a relic of 

 very curious old medical theory, which has long disappeared under 

 the light of modern science, called the doctrine of Signatures. 

 Under it most natural substances were imagined to possess some 

 indications of their medical properties and uses, called " Signa- 

 tures " — from "signum," Latin for a mark or sign — either by some 

 fancied resemblance of shape or colour between them and the bodily 

 organism, or by some peculiar taste or odour in the case of plants, 

 and these were supposed to arise from astral influences. In the 

 present case the fancied resemblance of red branching Coral to the 

 heart and bloodvessels was thus supposed to indicate its uses in 

 medicine, and hence its name. There are many relics of this old 

 theory in the domestic as well as the classical names of herbs which 

 were largely used in ancient pharmacy. But there can be no doubt 

 that the real derivation is from two Greek words, which mean 

 KOfjr) "Daughter;" \xA.os "of the Sea." The name "Coral" 

 thus becomes singularly appropriate. The ancients did not know 

 much of any Coral but the red variety, since that was the kind 

 which was found most plentifully near their great centres of civilisa- 

 tion, and they prized it greatly, adorning with it their helmets, 



* Commonly so called, but which are only the normal results of their life 

 — their skeletons, in fact. 



