HrSTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 25 



lypes, and similar pores can bo 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 Meese had 

 found growing upon a heath in Friesland ; and lastly, the 

 fructification of corallines is very similar to that of fuci and 

 confervas. 



Were these the deductions of correct observation and expe- 

 riment they would unquestionably have been conclusive, but 

 some of them were already known to be contrary to the fact, 

 and the others were weakened with doubts and uncertainties. 

 Ellis, conscious of his superior knowledge both of marine botany 

 and zoophytology, put forth an answer to this attack which is 

 remarkable for clear arrangement, and for candid and honour- 

 able bearing to his opponent, who had scarcely deserved this at 

 his hand. * Having shewn that the presumed coralline which 

 Pallas had compared to a fucus or sea-weed, was in fact a fucus, 

 Ellis proceeded to prove how widely different every coralline 

 was in structure and texture from any confervae ; and that the 

 former, contrary to Pallas's assertion, not only gave out when 

 burned " an offensive smell like that of burnt bones or hair," 

 but afforded also on careful analysis both volatile alkali and em- 

 pyreumatic oil. -|- " Dr Pallas," Ellis continues, " proceeds to 

 prove that corallines cannot be animals, as the pores of their 

 calcareous substances are too minute for any polypes to harbour 

 in. These words of the Doctor's seem to imply, as if the coral- 

 line substances were only habitations for detached polypes, and 

 not part of the animals themselves. How this affair stands, I 

 hope to have clearly demonstrated long before this, for I have 

 plainly seen, and endeavoured to shew mankind, that the softer 

 and harder parts of zoophytes are so closely connected with one 



" It appears from the Lin. Corresp. Vol. i. p. 18G, that Pallas had written 

 disrespectfully of Ellis. In his Elen. Zoophytorum the latter, however, is pro- 

 fusely complimented : — " Ellisium subtilitate atque acumine observationum om- 

 nes super eminentem," — Pnef. p. x. — is praise enough surely, but its sincerity 

 might be questionable. 



"I- This character, as Lamouroux remarks, is insufficient, seeing that the major 

 part of marine plants give out, in burning, odours and products analogous to those 

 of animals — Cor. Flex. p. 12. It is now well known that chemistry affords us, 



in its minute analyses, no test between animal and vegetable matter See Prout's 



Bridgewater Treat, p. 415, and more particularly Ticdemann's Comp. Physiolo- 

 gy, p. 48, &c. 



