A HISTORY OF 



whole surface, which is very rugged and 

 irregular, covered with a mucous fluid, and 

 almost in every part studded with little jelly- 

 like drops, which, when closely examined, 

 will be (bund to be no other than reptiles of 

 the polypus kind. These have their motions, 

 their arms, their appetites, exactly resembling 

 those described in the last chapter; but they 

 soon expire when taken out of the sea, and 

 our curiosity is at once stopped in its career, 

 by the animals ceasing to give any mark of 

 (heir industry: recourse, therefore, has been 

 had to other expedients,in order to determine 

 the nature of the inhabitant, as well as the 

 habitation. 



If a coraline plant be strictly observed, 

 while still growing in the sea, and the ani- 

 mals upon its surface be not disturbed, either 

 by the agitation of the waters, or the touch 

 of the observer, the little polypi will then be 

 seon in infinite numbers, each issuing from its 

 cell, and in some kinds the head covered 

 with a little shell, resembling an umbrella, 

 the arms spread abroad, in order to seize its 

 prey, while the hinder part still remains at- 

 tached to its habitation, from whence it never 

 wholly removes. By this time it is perceiv- 

 ed, that the number of inhabitants is infinite- 

 ly greater than was at first suspected ; and 

 that they are all assiduously employed in the 

 samo pursuits, and that they issue from their 

 respective cells, and retire into them at plea- 

 sure. Still, however, there are no proofs 

 that those large branches which they inhabit, 

 are entirely the construction of such feeble 

 and minute animals. But chymistry will be 

 found to lend a clue to extricate us from our 

 doubts in this particular. Like the shells 

 which are formed by snails, muscles, and 

 oysters, these coraline substances effervesce 

 with acids; and may therefore well be sup- 

 posed to partake of the same animal nature. 

 Bui Mr. Ellis went still farther, and examined 

 their operations, just as they were beginning. 

 Observing an oyster-bed which had been for 

 some time neglected, he there perceived the 

 first rudiments of a coraline plantation, and 

 tufts of various kinds shooting from different 

 parts of this favourable soil. It was upon- 

 these he tried his principal experiment. He 

 took out the oysters which w.ere thws furnish- 

 ed with ccraliufs, and placed them in a targe 



wooden vessel, covering them with sea-water. 

 In about an hour he perceived the animals, 

 which before had been contracted by hand- 

 ling, and had shown no signs of life, expand- 

 ing themselves in every direction, and appear- 

 ing employed in their own natural manner. 

 Perceiving them, therefore, in this state, his 

 next aim was to preserve them thus expand- 

 ed, so as to be permanent objects of cunosjty. 

 For this purpose, he poured, by slow degrees, 

 an equal quantity of boiling water into the 

 vessel of sea-water in which they were im- 

 mersed. He then separated each polypui 

 with pincers from its shell, and plunged each 

 separately into small crystal vases, filled 

 with spirit of wine mixed with water. By 

 this means the animal was preserved entire, 

 without having time to contract itself, and he 

 thus perceived a variety of kinds, almost 

 equal to that variety of productions which 

 these little animals are seen to form. He 

 has been thus able to perceive and describe 

 fifty different kinds, each of which is seen to 

 possess its own peculiar mode of construc- 

 tion, and to form a coraline that none of the 

 rest can imitate. It is true, indeed, that on 

 every coraline substance there are a number 

 of polypi found, no way resembling those 

 which are the erectersof the building: these 

 may be called a vagabond race of reptiles, 

 that are only intruders upon the labours of 

 others, and that take possession of habita- 

 tions, which they have neither art nor power 

 to build for themselves. But, in general, the 

 same difference that subsists between the 

 honey-comb of the bee, and the paper-like 

 cells of the wasp, subsists between the dif- 

 ferent habitations of the coral-making polypi. 

 With regard to the various forms of these 

 substances, they have obtained different 

 names from the nature of the animal that pro- 

 duced them, or the likeness they bear to 

 some well-known object, such as coralines, 

 fungi-madrepores, sponges, astroites, and 

 keratophytes. Though these differ extreme- 

 ly in their outward appearances, yet they are 

 all formed in the same manner by reptiles of 

 various kinds and nature. When examined 

 chymically, they all discover the marks of 

 animal formation ; the corals, as was said, 

 dissolve in acids, the sponges burn with an 

 odour strongly resembling that of burnt horn. 



