HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 



" In nova fert animus mutatas dicere fornias 

 Corpora." OVID. Metamorph. i. 



THE natural productions which have so long occupied our 

 attention, were denominated Zoophytes because, according to 

 some physiologists, they partook of the nature both of vege- 

 tables and animals, and connected the two kingdoms of 

 organized matter ; or because, as others defined the term, 

 having the outward semblance of sea-plants, they were in 

 reality the formations of little animals or polypes that nestled 

 in the cells or tubes of the zoophyte, to which they were or- 

 ganically and indissolubly connected. 



Little more than a century has elapsed since the first dis- 

 coveries were made, on which these opinions are founded. 



