HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 419 



that directed his enquiries into the nature of the latter, for. 

 attracted by their beauty and neatness, he was induced to 

 examine them minutely with the microscope, by the aid of 

 which he immediately perceived " that they differed not less 

 from each other, in respect to their form, than they did in re- 

 gard to their texture ; and that, in many of them, this tex- 

 ture was such as seemed to indicate their being more of an 

 animal, than vegetable nature." These '' suspicions," as he 

 modestly terms them, were communicated to the Royal So- 

 ciety in June 1 752 ; and, encouraged by some of the mem- 

 bers, he prosecuted this enquiry with such ardour, and care, 

 and sagacity, that, in August of the same year, he had fully 

 convinced himself " that these apparent plants Avere ramified 

 animals, in their proper skins or cases, not locomotive, but 

 fixed to shells of oysters, mussels, &c., and to Fucus's."* 



Ellis, however, was not forward to publish his discovery ; 

 he waited further opportunities to confirm the accuracy of his 

 first observations, and to institute other experiments to remove 

 whatever appeared hostile to the doctrine, which at length he 

 fully explained to the members of the Royal Society in a 

 paper read before them in June 1754 : and it was made more 

 generally known in the following year by the publication 

 of his " Essay towards a Natural History of the Corallines, 

 and other Marine Productions of the like kind, commonly 

 found on the Coasts of Great Britain and Ireland ;" — a work 

 so complete and accurate, that it remains an unscarred monu- 

 ment of his well-earned reputation as a philosophical inquirer, 

 and is even to this day the principal source of our knowledge 



* See the Introduction to his Essay on the Corallines of Great Britain. It is from 

 this work, and from the valuable " Selection of the Correspondence of Linnaeus, and 

 other naturalists, from the original manuscripts, by Sir James Edward Smith," 2 vols. 

 8vo. Lond., 1821, that I derive my account of Ellis's opinions. Sir J. E. Smith com- 

 mences his memoir by saying, "John Ellis, F. R. S., illustrious for his discovery and 

 complete demonstration of the animal nature of Corals and Corallines, was a native of 

 Ireland." We have seen that he has no claim to this discovery, though he himself 

 seems to have thought so, and never makes mention of his predecessors in the same 

 field. A Professor Buttner at Gottingen, who had been in England, and become ac- 

 quainted with Ellis, who calls him an " excellent botanist," unhesitatingly claimed 

 Ellis's discoveries for his own ; but a more barefaced literary theft has not been re- 

 corded, and its detection has rendered the name of the German professor infamous. 

 Lin. Corresp. vol. i. pp. 170, 179. For a list of Ellis's writings the reader may 

 consult Hall. Bib. Bot. ii. 433, and the introd. to Soland. Zooph. p. viii. 



E £ 2 



