14 



ACALEPIIS IN GENERAL. 



Part I. 



Medusae proper with the Siphonophora^ and the Iljdroids.^ Novortheless, the share 

 of attention ))e8to\ved npon the Aeale])hs is steadily increasing, and many Aalualjle 

 contributions to their history appear during this period ; na_y, several investigators 

 begin to study with special care these and other sol't-ljodied animals, as well as the 

 lower animals generally. The extraordinary disclosures of Trembley respecting the 

 fresh-water Hydra,^ and the discovery of the animal nature of the Corals by Peys- 

 sonnel,'^ had a great and lasting influence upon the progress of our knowledge of the 

 lower animals ; and even now their investigations are constantly alluded to as the 

 starting points of a better era in the natural history of the Piadiates. The 25aper 

 of lleaumur upon Rliizostoma, and Plancus's delineation of the Marsupialis, were soon 

 followed by Gronovius's^ illustrations of several Medusa; Easter's'' descriptions and 

 figures of many others; IJuhadsch's'' remarks upon Beroe, with a figure; Chanvallon's 



' Tlie history of the succossivt' editions of the 

 Systema Naiurce is instructive, un •account of tlie 

 progress Linna?iis himself liiis niaih- in fixing for- 

 ever tlie nomenclature of Xalural History. The 

 first edition consisted of a single folio sheet, and has 

 been republished by Ant. L. A. Fee in 1S30, in 

 Paris ; the last edition published by Linnaais him- 

 self is the twelfth, printed in Stockholm in 17('i7, in 

 3 vols. 8vo. 



- TitEMBLEY (Abu.), Memoires jiour servir ;i 

 riiistoire d"un genre de Polypes d'eaii douce, a bras 

 en forine de cornes, Leyde, 1744, Itu. fig. 



' Peys.sonnei. (.T. A. de), Traite du Corail, 

 etc., Phil. Tr. Ivoy. Soc. London, n.^."., vol. 47, p. 

 445. The history of the views entertained at differ- 

 ent periods respecting the nature of the Corals 

 truly illustrates the progress of Natural History. 

 At first considered as stones by Boccone (see note 

 4, p. 1'-') and Woodward (An Essay towards a Nat- 

 ural History of the Eartli, London, IGD.Jj, they 

 were regarded as plants by Marsigli (see note 

 2, p. 13), who was the first to obsei've, in 170G, 

 what lie called the floivers of Uie Coral. These 

 supposed flowers, which arc the individual polyps 

 of the Coral stock, were at once considered as 

 proving the vegetable character of the Coral, and 

 even the greatest botanist of that time, Bernard de 

 Jussieu, shared this view, until he had an oppor- 

 tunity of verifying for himself the accuracy of 

 Peyssonnel's statements. Reaumur opjiosed Peys- 



sonnel so }iertinaciously that the extensive work 

 of tills accurate and ingenious observer niver was 

 jiublished (see Flourens in Ann. des Sc. Nat. 

 2d ser. vol. '.t, \i. o.'vt), and only an abstract of it 

 ajipeared in the Transactions of the Koyal Society 

 of London. Had the whole Iieen printe<l at once, 

 naturalists woidd have known a century sooner, that 

 the animals of the Stony Corals are homologous to 

 the Actiniie and Acalephs, for Peyssonnel docs not 

 hesitate to call thein by the saine name, Oiiies, 

 Urticic, though he also ap|dies to them tlie name 

 of Insects. The same volume of the Transactions 

 of the Hoyal Society in which an abstract of Peys- 

 sonnel's work was published, also contains, ji. O.j, 

 an interesting paper by Donati, entitled " New 

 Discoveries relating to the History of Coral." 



* GrONOVIUS (L. Th.). His chief wm-k is the 

 Zoophylaeium Gronovianum, exhibens Animalia, 

 Quadrupeda, Amphibia, Pisces, Insecta, Vermes, 

 Mollusca, Testacea et Zoophyta qu;e in Museo suo 

 adservavit at([ue descripsit. Lugduni-Batavorum, 

 17G3-1781, fol. fig.; but for the Acalephs consult 

 his Observationes de Animalibus aliquot marina; 

 aquK innatantibus, atipie in littoribus Belgicis obviis, 

 in Acta Helvetica, 17G0, vol. 4. 



^ Bastek (Job), Oiiuscula subseciva, observa- 

 tiones miscellaneas de Animalculis et Plantis ipii- 

 busdam marinis eorumque ovariis et seminibus con- 

 tincntia. Harlem, 175!l-170"), 2 vols. 4to. fig. 



" BoilAUSCii (J. B.), De quibusdam Animalibus 



