12 CORALS 



demonstrate by observation and experiment that these 

 things are animals. Peyssonnel conducted his investiga- 

 tions on the Precious coral in the neighbourhood of Marseilles 

 in 1724 and 1725, and wrote an account of them in which 

 he clearly expressed his view as to the purely animal nature 

 of the Coral polyp. 



But the views of the leading authorities of the French 

 Academy, and particularly of Reaumur, were so firmly 

 fixed that it was considered to be an act of charity to 

 Peyssonnel to refuse to publish his revolutionary opinions, 

 and even when he sent a communication on the subject 

 in 1753 to the Royal Society of London, which was pub- 

 lished three years later, the name of the author was 

 suppressed. Fortunately Peyssonnel's manuscripts were 

 preserved in the library of the Natural History Museum 

 in Paris and due credit has since been given to him for his 

 discoveries. 



Ellis, 1 whose work was certainly done without knowledge 

 of what Peyssonnel had written, expresses his opinion 

 very clearly in the following sentence : "I own I am led 

 to suspect that by much the greatest part of those Sub- 

 stances, which from their Figure have hitherto been reputed 

 Sea Shrubs, Plants, Mosses, etc., are not only the Residence 

 of Animals, but their Fabric likewise ; and serve for the 

 Purposes of Subsistence, Defence and Propagation, as much 

 as the Combs and Cells fabricated by Bees, and other Insects, 

 serve for similar Purposes." 



The result of these investigations was that Linnaeus 

 removed the Zoophytes from the Vegetable to the Animal 

 Kingdom, where they have remained ever since, but in doing 

 so he retained a modified form of the older view as to the 

 dual nature of these organisms. 



It is not quite clear what Linnaeus really believed about 

 the Zoophytes, but judging from the brief statements he 

 gives in Latin he thought that the stem is vegetable but 

 becomes metamorphosed into animal when it flowers — 



stirps vegetans, metamorphosi transiens in florens Animal. 



^ J. Ellis, Natural History of the Corallines, p. loo. 1755. 



