HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 429 



the different parts of the same animal, which the world has 

 long been acquainted with, why should we endeavour to con- 

 found the ideas of vegetable and animal substances, in the 

 minds of the people that we would willingly instruct in these 

 matters I"'" And in a subsequent letter he repeats, " I can- 

 not reconcile myself to vegetating animals : the introduction 

 of the doctrine of this mixed kind of life will only confuse 

 our ideas of nature. We have not proof sufficient to deter- 

 mine it ; and I am averse to hypothesis. ""h 



Pallas, who published at this period an admirable history 

 of zoophytes.^ was also the advocate of the Linnsean doctrine, 

 but he adduced no other facts than those furnished by Baster 

 in its aid, — setting, however, in bolder relief the argument de- 

 rived from its accordance with the hypothesis of a continuous 

 series in the structure of organized beings, which, it was for 

 long a point of orthodoxy to believe, formed a chain "in linked 

 sweetness long drawn out," graduating insensibly from man 

 to the monad, — as Bonnet maintained ; or branching oiF into 

 lesser series after the manner of a tree, — a simile suggested by 

 Pallas himself as more correctly representing the " System 

 of Nature." § He also adopted the opinion of Baster, who 

 in this respect continued in opposition to Linnaeus, that the 

 true corallines (Corallina) were entirely of a vegetable nature, 

 and his arguments on this head may be summed up as follows : — 

 In external appearance and structure a few corallines resemble 

 some Fuci, and many of them are like Oonfervse ; they differ 

 from other zoophytes in chemical composition, for, on being 

 burned, they emit the smell of vegetable matter, neither do 

 they contain a volatile salt or animal oil ; the pores observable 

 in their calcareous portion are too small to be the habitations 

 of polypes, and similar pores can be detected on Fuci ; no 

 polypes nor any visible token of life could be discovered by 

 Jussieu in any coralline, a species of which, moreover, a Mr. 



• Lin. Corresp. vol. i. p. 226. 



+ Lin. Corresp. vol. i. p. 260. 



J " Princeps in hac classe opus." Hall. Bib. Bot. ii. 566. 



§ " Didicimus in zoophytis, sic jure vocandis, vegetabilem naturam cum animali ita 

 misceri, ut vere anceps et dubia passim sit," &c. Elenc. Zooph. prasf. viii. The In- 

 troduction to the work is headed, " De zoophytorum intermedia natura et inventione." 

 His ideas of the Natural System are given m an interesting passage at pp. 23, 24, 

 which is too long for quotation in this place. 



