430 HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 



Meese had found growing upon a heath in Friesland ; and,, 

 lastly, the fructification of corallines is very similar to that oft 

 Fuci and Confervse. 



Were these the deductions of correct observation and expe- 

 riment, they would unquestionably have been conclusive ; but 

 some of them were already known to be contrary to the fact, 

 and the others were weakened with doubts and uncertainties. 

 Ellis, conscious of his superior knowledge both of marine 

 botany and zoophytology, put forth an answer to this attack 

 which is remarkable for clear arrangement, and for candid and 

 honourable bearing to his opponent, who had scarcely deserved 

 this at his hand.* Having shewn that the presumed coral- 

 line, which Pallas had compared to a Fucus or sea- weed, was in 

 fact a Fucus, Ellis proceeded to prove how widely different 

 every coralline was in structure and texture from any con- 

 fervse ; and that the former, contrary to Pallas's assertion, 

 not only gave out when burned "an offensive smell like that 

 of burnt bones or hair," but afforded also on careful analysis 

 both volatile alkali and empyreumatic oil.-f- " Dr. Pallas," 

 Ellis continues, " proceeds to prove that corallines cannot be 

 animals, as the pores of their calcareous substances are too 

 minute for any polypes to harbour in. These words of the 

 Doctor's seem to imply, as if the coralline substances were 

 only habitations for detached polypes, and not part of the 

 animals themselves. How this affair stands, I hope to have 

 clearly demonstrated long before this, for I have plainly seen, 

 and endeavoured to show mankind, that the softer and harder 

 parts of zoophytes are so closely connected with one another, 

 that they cannot separately exist, and therefore have not 

 hesitated to call them constituent parts of the same body, and 



* It appears from the Lin. Corresp. vol. i. p. 186, that Pallas had written disre- 

 spectfully of Ellis. In his Elen. Zoophytorum, the latter, however, is profusely 

 complimented : " Ellisium subtilitate atque acumine observationum omnes super 

 eminentem," (Prsef. p. x.) is praise enough surely, but its sincerity might be ques- 

 tionable. 



t This character, as Lamouroux remarks, is insufficient, seeing that the major part 

 of marine plants give out, in burning, odours and products analogous to those of 

 animals. Cor. Flex. p. 12. It is now well known that chemistry affords us, 

 in its minute analyses, no test between animal and vegetable matter. See Prout's 

 Bridge water Treat, p. 415, and more particularly Tiedemann's Comp. Physiology, 

 p. 48, &c. 



