1885.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 35 



III the works of Tournefort and Kay, the leading natui-alists 

 of tlieir age, iminedhitely antecedent to the time when the dis- 

 coveries leading to modern doctrines took place, the zoophytes, 

 whether calcareous and hard, or horny and flexible, were arranged 

 and described among the sea weeds or algfe. Ray in his Wisdont 

 of God seen in the Creation, published in London in 1691, speak- 

 ing of corals and like forms, says: " Some have a kind of vege- 

 tation and resemblance to plants which grow upon the rocks 

 like shrubs." Gesner and Boccone and Shaw regarded them as 

 vegetables, and not entitled to a place among animal life. 



The communication of Peysonnel was entrusted to Reaumur. 

 Through a friendly feeling for his friend, the latter omitted the 

 name of the author of the paper, fearing that the Academicians 

 would receive it with expressions of ridicule and disti-ust. To 

 oppose successfully tlie convictions of an Italian Count, of 

 zoological fame, and the established belief of the masses, Reau- 

 mur thought would be too much for his friend to hope for. 



Singularl}^, Reaumur subsecpiently read a paper before the 

 Academy, taking o]-)posite grounds to his friend Peysonnel. 



The hitter's paper was not published, but was embodied with 

 that of Reaumur. 



Peysonnel maintained that the blossoms regarded by Marsigli 

 as vegetable productions were " true animals or insects, analo- 

 gous to the Actinia', or sea anemones; that the coral was secreted 

 in a fluid form by the inhabitant Actinia, and became afterwards 

 fixed, hard, and changed into stone, and that all other stony sea- 

 plants, and even sponges, are the work of different insects, par- 

 ticular to each species of these marine bodies, which labor uni- 

 formly according to their nature, and as the Supreme Being 

 has ordered and determined." Peysonnel was the working natur- 

 list, and ])ossessed the sjurit of an observer and investigator of 

 the present time rather than the blind supei'stition and fancy of 

 the picture-book makers of the seventeenth century. Peyson- 

 nel Avas a physician residing at Marseilles. He had the oppor- 

 tunities afforded by contact with the sea-faring men of the coast 

 town. He had seen the zoophytes in their proper sphere; had 

 observed their structure and liabits; and finally, had the true 

 inspiration and conviction of the philosopher. 



In 1742, Abraham Trembley ])roduced his celebrated treatise on 

 the reproductive powers of the fresh water polyps in the " Philo- 

 sophical Transactions." This paper brought to mind the state- 

 ments of Peysonnel, and immediately Reaumur took up the sub- 

 ject with renewed interest. He made personal examinations, 

 and eventually became a stout supporter of the new views. Ber- 

 nard de Jussieu and Guettard visited the coast of France in the 

 autumn of 1741 and '42, and made extensive examinations of the 



