36 HISTORY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 



true worth, he entrusted the statement of his opinions to 

 Reaumur, who was to conceal his name. Even in this choice 

 he was unfortunate, though probably at the time he could 

 not have selected a better. Reaumur stated his opinions, 

 but so far was he from supporting them that he wrote an 

 essay, with objections to what he considered a new theory, and 

 gave a preference to the theory which regarded them as vege- 

 table productions. 



It is recorded of Galileo, when he rose from his knees 

 after making the humbling recantation of his novel and then 

 heretical doctrine of the revolutions of the earth, that he 

 said, sotto voce, " It still moves ;" so we doubt Peyssonnel, 

 in spite of the taunts and sneers of the Academicians, would 

 persist in saying they are neither flowers nor crystallizations, 

 but living creatures. He had all the world against lum till 

 1741, when, owing to the discoveries of M. Trembley, re- 

 specting the animality of the fresh-water Hydra, and the Plu- 

 matella, which excited such wonder, the tide fairly turned. 

 Bernard de Jussieu and some other distinguished naturalists 

 were led to examine the marine corals and corallines, and 

 soon found that Peyssonnel's doctrine was the true one, and 

 extended to many more zoophytes than he had examined. 

 Even Reaumur was convinced, and did justice at last to 



