HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 5 



scriptions of the species which fell under his notice with illus- 

 trative figures of considerable accuracy. His " Historia Natu- 

 vale," of which De Blahiville assuredly speaks in very exag- 

 ireratinof terms when he represents it as one of the most im- 

 portant works in the history of zoophytology, was prmted at 

 Naples in 1599 ; but although reprinted some years after- 

 wards (1672), the book, and the knowledge it contained, had 

 sunk into such complete oblivion, that when Peysso^nel, in the 

 year 17*27, communicated the same discovery to the Academy 

 of Sciences in Paris, it was received by the members of that 

 learned body in a manner which is sufficient to convince us that 

 it was entirely new to them, and exposed the author to the ob- 

 loquy and censure which are the usual portions of an original 

 discoverer. 



Some time previously to the publication of Peyssonnel's dis- 

 covery, those who maintained that the stony zoophytes were 

 plants had received a strong corroboration of their opinion from 

 the researches of Count Marsigli, who, having detected the ex- 

 istence of polypes in coral and madrepore, had, under the influ- 

 ence of the fashionable theory, described them as being literal- 

 ly their blossoms or flowers.* Peyssonnel, therefore, had to 

 contend not only against the prejudices of the vulgar based on 

 appearances which spoke direct to the outward sense, but against 

 the actual observations of a naturalist of acknowledged merit ; 

 and the observations of Peyssonnel, although numerous and 

 unequivocal, were yet mixed up with so much that was fanciful 

 or erroneous, that it is not wonderful his opinion was received 

 with coldness and suspicion. Reaumur, to whom Peyssonnel's 

 communication was intrusted, even concealed the name of the 



rod and directing the attention of two wondering visitors to the more remarkable 

 of them, while a third leans against a cabinet, and surveys, 



" not without much content 



" Its many singularities." 

 The book contains besides many wood-cuts of a miscellaneous kind, very tolera- 

 bly engraved for the age. The Zoophytes figured belong chiefly to the Litlio- 

 phyta, with some Sponges and Alcyonia. The opinions of Rumphius seem to 

 have been as explicitly stated as those of Impcrato, but they effected nothing — 

 Pall. Elench. 14, and 275. 



* " Ce fut une decouverte qui fit grand bruit dans le monde naturaliste, que 

 celle des fleurs du corail." Reaumur — Marsigli's work was published in 1711. 

 His name is sometimes written MarsillL — For an account of his works see Hal- 

 ler, Bib. Hot. i. G30. 



