INTRODUCTION. 47 
the authors who have adopted [llis’s views and followed 
them out with great success. For a long time, however, 
naturalists seemed to have rested satisfied with what had 
been done. The standard work of Ellis was published in 
1752; and that century was allowed to close, and more than 
a fourth of the present century to pass away, before we had 
another work on British zoophytes. In 1828, however, my 
distinguished friend Dr. John Fleming, now Professor of 
Natural Science in New College, Edinburgh, published his 
‘ History of British Animals,’ and at the close of the volume 
our little zoophytes pass in array before us; and within 
small compass he gives an excellent description of them, as 
the result of his diligent research and most accurate obser- 
vation. This admirable book, along with its still more 
learned forerunner, ‘The Philosophy of Zoology,’ gave new 
hfe to natural history, and laid the scientific world under 
great obligations. ‘'l'o his labours and writing,” says Dr. 
George Johnston, “I am inclined to ascribe a very con- 
siderable share in diffusing that taste for natural history 
which is now abroad.” 
In 1838, ten years after the publication of the ‘ British 
Animals, Dr. George Johnston, previously well known as 
the author of several works on natural history, published, in 
