110 J. MATTHEWS OS THE HISTORY AND 



shields, and weapons. They wore it made into amulets to avert the 

 " evil eye," and necklaces of it placed around the necks of new- 

 born children were supposed to preserve them from contagious 

 diseases, of which practice a relic still exists in the shape of the 

 baby's coral and bells. It is found in many parts of the Mediter- 

 ranean Sea, principally at the entrance of the Adriatic Gulf, the 

 iEgean Sea, and on the coasts of France, Barbary, and Tunis. It 

 is got up by a rude kind of dredge sometimes, but very rarely from 

 water only ten feet deep, but is never found below 150 fathoms, 

 generally at between about 60 to 100. That found in the Adriatic 

 and on the coast of France is of the most brilliant colour, but in 

 commerce there are five varieties, of which the rose-coloured is the 

 most rare and valuable.* Of its modern uses I need not speak. 



The Corals belong to the Ccelenterata, the general characters 

 of which are, that they have a distinct and permanent mouth, 

 and a distinct and permanent body-cavity, but the mouth 

 opens into, and freely communicates with the body cavity 

 either directly or indirectly. The Ccelenterata are divided 

 into two classes — -the Hydrozoa and the Actinozoa, and amongst 

 both probably are found the Corals. The type of the former is the 

 fresh-water Hydra, that of the latter, the Actinia, or Sea Anemone. 

 The Hydra consists of a soft muscular bag, capable of being 

 stretched into a slender tube, shrunk into a small globe, or widely 

 distended, at will. At one end there is a circular mouth, highly 

 sensitive, opening, closing, or protruding like a cone, and surrounded 

 by from five to twelve (according to species) long and flexible 

 tentacles, arranged symmetrically. The mouth opens into a cavity, 

 which extends throughout the length of the body, and performs the 

 office of a stomach ; but it is stated, as an extraordinary fact, which 

 at present needs confirmation, that they appear to suffer no in- 

 convenience from being turned inside out, the new cavity perform- 

 ing all the functions of digestion as well as the old one. The 

 other end terminates in a disc-like sucker, by which the Hydra fixes 

 itself to aquatic plants. The whole sac, or bag, forming the body is 

 made up of three layers, the Ecto-denn,t\\% Meso-derm more or less de- 

 veloped, and the Endo-derm, and the space between is filled, according 

 to my own observation, with a semi-fluid matter, having in it some ap- 

 parently solid bodies and vacuoles, or ajDparently empty spaces. These 



* It is said by Mrs. Somerville that the white variety is a diseased form. 



