150 Dr Olbers on the Transparence/ of Space. 



opacity to space, and I do not imagine it to be very wide of the 

 truth. 



It is therefore with equal wisdom and goodness, that creative 

 Omnipotence has given to space a high degi'ee of translucidity, 

 without, however, rendering this translucidity perfect, and that 

 it has thus hmited the range of our vision to a determinate part 

 of this space. In consequence of this arrangement, we are pla- 

 ced in a condition to acquire some knowledge of the structure 

 and arrangement of the universe, of which we should scarcely 

 know any thing, had the most distant suns sent us a light which 

 underwent no diminution. — Bibliotheque Universelle, Feb. 1826. 



Observaticyns on the Spontaneous Motions of the Ova of the 

 Campanularia dicliotoma, Gorgonia verrucosa^ Caryophyllea 

 calycularis, Spongia pankea^ Sp. papillaris, cristata, tomen- 

 tosa, and Plumulariajalcata. By Robert E. Grant, M. D. 

 F. R. S. E., F. L. S., M. W. S., &c * (Communicated by the 

 Author.) 



rv\ 



JL HAT acute and indefatigable zoologist Mr Ellis, first ob- 

 served in 1755 the spontaneous motions exhibited by the ova of 

 the Campanularia dichotomaljam., ( Sertularia dichotoma Lin.^, 

 for some time after their separation from the parent. Although 

 this interesting fact is one of the most important and best esta- 

 blished v/hich has yet been discovered, connected with the gene- 

 ration of zoophytes, and one of very general occurrence in these 

 animals, it has attracted so little attention for half a century 

 past, that we find not the slightest allusion to it in the writings 

 of Lamarck, Lamouroux, Cuvier, or almost any other modern 

 zoologist. When in company with Dr Schlosser and Mr Ehret, 

 on the coast of Sussex, Mr Ellis examined the Campanularia 

 dichotoma alive, and found several vesicles on it, some of which 

 contained ova attached to an umbilical cord. This cord was dis- 

 tinctly seen through the transparent coats of the vesicle, to take 

 its origin from the fleshy central part of the stem. "In other 

 vesicles (he observes) we discovered these ova beginning to exhi- 



• Head before the Wernerian Natural History Society, 27th May 1826. 



