CORALLINES. 127 



flower. The calyx of this pretended flower, in short, was the animal, 

 which advanced and issued out of its cell." 



The observations of Peyssonnel were calculated to put aside 

 altogether theories which had lately attracted universal admiration, 

 but they were coldly received by the naturalists, his contemporaries. 

 Reaumur distinguished himself greatly in his opposition to the young 

 innovator. He wrote to Peyssonnel in an ironical tone: "I think 

 (he says) as you do, that no one has hitherto been disposed to regard 

 the coral as the work of insects. We cannot deny that this idea is 

 both new and singular ; but the coral, as it appears to me, never could 

 have been constructed by sea-nettles or polyps, if we may judge from 

 the manner in which you make them labour." 



What appeared impossible to Reaumur was, however, a fact which 

 Peyssonnel had demonstrated to hundreds by his experiments at 

 Marseilles. Nevertheless, Bernard de Jussieu did not find the reasons 

 he urged strong enough to induce him to abandon the opinions he 

 had formed as to their vegetable origin. Afflicted and disgusted at 

 the indifferent success with which his labours were received, Peyssonnel 

 abandoned his investigations. He even abandoned science and society, 

 and sought an obscure retirement in the Antilles as a naval surgeon, 

 and his manuscripts, which he left in France, have never been printed. 

 These manuscripts, written in 1 744, were preserved in the library of 

 the Museum of Natural History at Paris. The title is comprehensive 

 and sufficiently descriptive. It should be added, in order to complete 

 the recital, that Reaumur and Bernard de Jussieu finally recognized 

 the value of the discoveries and the validity of the reasoning of the 

 naturalist of Marseilles. When these illustrious savants became 

 acquainted with the experiments of Trembley upon the fresh-water 

 hydrae ; when they had themselves repeated them ; when they had 

 made similar observations on the sea anemone and alcyonidae ; when 

 they finally discovered that on other so-called marine plants animal- 

 cules were found similar to the hydra, so admirably described by 

 Trembley ; they no longer hesitated to render full justice to the views 

 of their former adversary. 



While Peyssonnel still lived forgotten at the Antilles, his scientific 

 labours were crowned with triumph . at Paris ; but it was a sterile 

 triumph for him. Reaumur gave to the animalcules which construct 

 the coral the name of Polyps, and Coral to the product itself, for 



