264 TRAVELS THROUG& 



has been gathered by Dr. and Profeflbr XaVerif 

 Manetti. 



Dr. Bartolome Mefny, a Frenchman, has like- 

 wife a cabinet ; but on account of his abience I 

 did not fee it. 



The china manufactory at Doccia, four Italian 

 miles diftant from Florence, is belonging to Mar- 

 quis and Senator Lorenzo Ginort, a fon of the late 

 Minifter, who eftabhmed it, and has been a man 

 of great learning in Natural Hiftory. To obferve 

 the growth of the zoophytes, corals, and their 

 flony branches, he caufed ftrong china-plates, with 

 the dates of the day and year> to be caft in the fea 

 en feveral fhores of the Mediterranean j fuch as 

 that of Tufcany, Sicily, and Sardinia, and to be 

 fifhed up again in different times. If I remember 

 right, I have feen fome fuch plates in the Imperial 

 cabinet, or in that of the late Aulic-agent Baron 

 de Moll, at Vienna. This our common worthy 

 friend had not only got acquainted with thefe Ita- 

 lian experiments, but examined himfeif the na* 

 ture and growth of the Coralline inhabitants. To 

 this purpofe he had made a great many remarkable 

 microfcopical obfervations of the Polypes in frefh 

 water, which- are of the fame kind as the coral- 

 animalcula : and you have feen, I fuppofe, fome 

 of his engraved obfervations of thefe marvellous 

 creatures, which, being in every refpect honourable 



