UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 63 



it may therefore be supposed that these separate 

 islands will in time be connected, and actually 

 become a continent ! 



He told us, that M. de Peysonnel, of Mar- 

 seilles, was the first who proved by experiment 

 the animal nature of the coral; and shewed, 

 that those bodies which former naturalists had 

 mistaken for flowers, were, in fact, the insects 

 that inhabited the coral. When the branches 

 were taken out of the water, these supposed 

 flowers, which proceeded from a number of 

 white points in the bark, withdrew and disap- 

 peared ; and when the branch was restored to 

 the water, they were again perceptible. The 

 white specks he proved to be holes in the outer 

 surface, or bark, and corresponding with a series 

 of cavities within ; and secondly, he shewed that 

 from these holes a milky fluid issued, which was 

 an animal juice, and must, therefore, have pro- 

 ceeded from an insect. By immersing coral in 

 strong vinegar, he could dissolve the calcareous 

 bark to a certain depth, so as to shew the tubular 

 structure of the interior uninjured. 



Carbonate of lime, my uncle says, is the prin- 

 cipal part of the substance of the whole tribe of 

 corals and corallines ; but where these minute 

 insects, or rather polypi, obtain that material, or 

 how they can decompose such an extraordinary 

 quantity of it from sea-water, is one of those se- 

 crets of nature which philosophers have not yet 



