RISE AND PROGRESS OF ZOOLOGY. 39 



we will, the best test of the merits of a writer, is 

 the value which posterity attaches to his works; 

 and, if we measure the researches of Ellis by this 

 rule, we shall find, that, unlike systems claiming far 

 higher pretensions, the two volumes of our illustrious 

 countryman are now of as high an authority as they 

 were on their first publication. His Natural History 

 of Corallines *, now become scarce, was immediately 

 translated into French, and we understand another 

 edition has recently been published on the Continent. 

 He was the author of no less than twenty-five papers 

 in the Transactions of the Royal Society, and he was 

 honoured by receiving the Copley medal for 1768 

 For some time previous to his death he had been 

 gathering materials for a grand work on the zoo- 

 phytes, and a considerable number of most admir- 

 able plates had already been executed, when this 

 event took place, in 1776. These materials, however, 

 were arranged by Dr. Solander, but only published f 

 in 1786, under the auspices of Sir Joseph Banks ; 

 when both the author and the editor had gone to 

 their last home. Ellis was also an accomplished 



p. 80. He not only did this, but stoutly denied, to the last, 

 in his own works, the discovery of Ellis. — See Maton's Life 

 of Linn., p. 560. 



* Ellis. (1.) Essay towards a Natural History of the Coral- 

 lines found on the Coast of Great Britain and Ireland. By 

 John Ellis, Esq. London, 1755. 1 vol. 4to. (2.) Letter to 

 Dr. Linnaeus on the Animal Nature of Zoophytes, called Co- 

 rallina. London, 1768. 4to. 



f Natural History of many curious and uncommon Zoo- 

 phytes, collected trotn various Parts of the Globe. By Ellis and 

 Solander. London, 1786. 1 vol. 4to 

 D 4 



