40 HISTORY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 
marine productions of the same kind, commonly found on 
the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland ;}—“ A work,” says 
Dr. George Johnston, a most competent judge, “so com- 
plete and accurate, that 1t remains an unscarred monument 
of his well-earned reputation as a philosophical mquirer, 
and is even to this day the principal source of our know- 
ledge in this department of natural history.” 
As a proof of the rapid spread of the reputation of this 
work, we may mention that, before a year elapsed, a trans- 
lation of it into the French language was published at the 
Hague, dedicated by M. Hondt, the translator, to her ma- 
jesty the Queen of Sweden. I have a copy of that work 
published in 1756, with illustrations from the same plates 
that were employed in the original work. And yet, precious 
as the work is, even in a translation, it is mortifying to find 
that it has never been read, for it has remained uncut. This 
would say little for the popularity of the treatise, did we not 
conjecture that it must have fallen into the hands of per- 
sons unacquainted with the French language, and therefore 
ignorant of the value of the treasure in their possession. 
It is very interesting to learn from the relation which 
Ellis himself gives, the way in which the light broke mm upon 
him. About the close of the year 1751 (and one hundred 
