172 



I have thus endeavoured to trace a simple outline of Polyp 

 life, past and present, with the view of shewing — 1st, how large 

 a portion of the earth's crust is due to the secreting energies 

 of these tiny architects, and to prove the vast importance in 

 the economy of nature of the combined hving forces of the 

 simplest animals ; 2nd, that the importance of organised beings 

 in the composition of the fossiliferous rocks is in an inverse 

 ratio to their magnitude, and the place they occupy in the 

 Zoological series ; 3rd, the unity of the organic law which 

 appears to have regulated the structure, growth and development 

 of Corals from their first appearance in the Silurian seas, down 

 to those of the present, each distinct geological period being 

 characterised by a greater or less development of forms that are 

 special to it, the Devonian and Carboniferous in Palaeozoic time, 

 and the Inferior Oohte and CoraUian in Mesozoic, being 

 the great reef-building ages of the ancient world ; 4th, that the 

 modern period possesses probably a greater development of reef 

 building Corals than ever existed in any previous epoch ; and 

 that the areal extent of Coralligenous structures within 28° of 

 each side of the Equator forms one of its most remarkable 

 Geological characters ; the Atolls and Barrier reefs of the 

 Indo-Pacific ocean, for their magnitude, extent, and number, 

 having nothing approaching to them, either in the Devonian 

 or Carboniferous periods of Palaeozoic or the Jiu-assic age of 

 Mesozoic time. 



In conclusion, I would quote the words I recently addressed 

 to the members of the Woolhope, Malvern, and Cotteswold 

 Field Clubs, assembled in Dr. Gkindeod's Museum at Malvern, 

 whilst demonstrating the remarkable collection of ancient 

 organisms exhibited there for our study on that occasion. "If 

 I might be permitted to express the thought that rose in my mind 

 at this moment, when contemplating so grand a display of 

 the denizens of the old Silurian beach, it was this, that the 

 Almighty Author of all things had revealed to us in these His 

 works, how unchangeable was His character, for the details 

 of their structure, the laws of their being, and other phenomena 

 by which the present organisms of the animal creation are 



