THE POLYZOA RECOGNISED AS 



Historical vieto of the fads which fin alii/ led to the establishment of the Polyzoa as a 



distinct class. 



It was in the last year of the sixteenth century that the Neapolitan, Ferante Iraperato, 

 asserted that corals possessed the nature of animals.* The announcement had passed away 

 nearly unheeded; and if at the end of more than a hundred years afterwards any lingering 

 doubts as to the vegetabiiity of these productions still remained, it was deemed that the dis- 

 covery of the Count de Marsigli, who, in the year 1706, f declared that he had seen coral in 

 flower, must have totally dissipated them. 



Not so, however, thought Jean Andre Peysonelle, physician at Marseilles ; he soon saw 

 that the flowers described by Marsigli were nothing more than the beautiful starry polypes 

 of the coral, and he maintained that these were true animals of the same nature as the 

 Actiniae of the rocks, whose animality was sufficiently obvious to leave no room for doubt, 

 and that the hard stony coral was a peculiar habitation built by these creatures for their 

 protection. 



But Peysonelle had few followers ; even Reaumur, to whom he had intrusted a commu- 

 nication on this subject, with the intention of having it presented to the Academy of Scie nee 

 at Paris, not only strongly opposed the views of Peysonelle, while laying them before the 

 Academy, but, through consideration for the reputation of the author, deemed it right to 

 suppress his name in connection with so absurd and visionary a doctrine. J 



Among those, however, who saw something more than the mere dreams of a visionary 

 in the doctrines of Peysonelle, was the celebrated botanist, Bernard de Jussieu. He felt their 

 importance; and, in 1741, he visited the coast of Normandy, in order to subject them to the 

 test of actual observation. De Jussieu had here an opportunity of examining the Alcyoniums, 

 Sertularise, Flustrse, and other flexible and plant-like productions to which the observations of 

 Peysonelle had not extended, and the result was a complete conviction of their animality, 

 and a firm adherence to the doctrines of Peysonelle. 



In communicating to the Royal Academy of Sciences§i the result of his observations, B. de 

 Jussieu employed the word polype to designate the various productions whose animal nature 

 had thus been so satisfactorily determined, a term which up to the present day has been in 

 general adoption. 



It was just at this time that Abraham Trembley was engaged in his famous experiments 

 on the Hydra, which Leeuwenhock had originally discovered, attached to the leaves of Lemna, 

 along with various fresh-water Infusoria ; and of which he had in 1 703 communicated a 

 notice to the Royal Society of London. || 



The close relation of the Hydra with the marine polypes was now abundantly apparent, 

 and the important light which its study shed upon the nature of these polypes, has in- 

 vested its discovery with a peculiar interest as marking out a distinct epoch in the progress 

 of zoology. 



* Ferante Imperato, ' Historia Naturale,' Napoli, 1599. 



t In a letter to the Abbe Bignon. See Marsigli, ' Brieve ristretto del Sagio fisico intorno alia 

 Sturia del Mare,' Venezia, 1711. 



% 'Mem. de I'Acad.,' 1727. § 'Mem. de I'Acad.,' 1743. || 'Phil. Trans.,' 1703. 



