36 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [XOV. IG, 



marine })roductioiis. Both soon became satisfied witli the now 

 theory. Jussieu enlarged upon the theme, and expressed his 

 opinion that many more objects woubl be discovered belonging to 

 this class. Ho examined the tnbularias and the fliistras, those 

 beautiful forms that are so often gathered on our beaches, 

 and pressed like mosses, which they are mistaken for, finding 

 them analogous to the other forms, pronounced them animal 

 in nature. Indeed, his utterances were now highly prophetic, 

 and his writings both pleasingly popular and executed in the 

 true spirit of science. 



Donati — "New Discoveries relating to the History of Coral, 

 by D]-. V. Donati, from the French of Stack, 17o0"— made 

 some attempts to continue the exposition of the new views, but 

 his work is regarded of comparatively little consequence. 



Peysonnel, yet living, entertained great interest in the sub- 

 ject, and wrote in 1751 a manuscript treatise on Coral and 

 other Marine Productions, which he transmitted to the Royal 

 Society of London. Dr. Watson ]-eviewed this work in the 47th 

 Vol. of " Transactions of the Royal Society" in 1753. 



In 1752, John Ellis, an Irish merchant residing in London, 

 but devoted to marine zoology, presented before the Royal Soci- 

 ety of London a treatise on the Corallines and Sea Weeds of 

 Great Britain. He states of these forms: "that they differed 

 not less from each other in respect to their form than they did 

 in regard to their texture; and that in many of them this tex- 

 ture was such as seemed to indicate their being more of an ani- 

 mal than vegetable nature." In 1754, he made a more elaborate 

 statement to the Society, and the next year he published his very 

 notable and valuable " Essay towards a Natural History of the 

 Corallines and other Mai'ine Productions of the like kind, com- 

 monly found on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland." 



This is a standard work to this day. A copy before me — 

 which, by the way, exhibit^s on its title' the legend: "Do Kay to 

 the New York Lyceum of Natural History," a name to be remem- 

 bered — is in German text, and the plates are excellent copper 

 •etchings; being full in species and correct in detail. It is amus- 

 ing and instructive to revert to these early days in zoological dis- 

 ])utation, to see how wisely Ellis and his followers regarded the 

 low forms that have long since his day had their fiuctuations in 

 the minds of men as subjects of argument, as to their ])roper 

 place in Nature. Ellis first sujjposed that the holes in dry 

 sponges indicated the ])resence in life of certain animal bodies. 

 He was thoroughly convinced of its animality. Its chemical con- 

 stituents and its structure were to him conclusive proofs of this 

 fact. "I am jiersuaded," he writes Linn feus, '' iha fibrm inter- 

 textcB of sponges ai'c only the tendons that inclose a gelatinous 



