Natural History . 125 



by the successive inquiries of Trembly, Donati, 

 B. DE JussiEu, and finally of the ingenious and 

 accurate Mr. Ellis, of Great-Britain, whose work 

 on this genus of animal substances is certainly 

 among the best extant/ On the fourth order of 

 vermes, the Zoophita, Professor Pallas, of Russia, 

 has given to the public a most valuable work, of 

 which the systematic arrangement, and philoso- 

 phical accuracy, must ever recommend it to the 

 discerning inquirer. The fifth order, or Infusoria, 

 has been treated, with great successive improve- 

 ments, by BoNNETT, of Geneva, Needham, of 

 Great-Britain, Adanson, of France, and above 

 all, by Muller, of Denmark; the last of whom 

 has investigated and exhibited this department of 

 zoology in a manner more extensive, complete, 

 and satisfactory than any of his predecessors, 



Most of the naturalists above mentioned not only 

 wrote with great ability on the several subjects 

 connected with their names, but also made large 

 additions to the facts and specimens known by 

 preceding inquirers. Few of them failed to con- 

 nect with the ingenuity of system a large mass of 

 new and useful information. A considerable num- 

 ber of new Quadrupeds have been brought to light 

 during the period of which we are speaking, and 

 added to the old lists. The species of Birds ar- 

 ranged and described by Linn.^us amounted to 

 near a thousand. Since that time the number has 

 been more than doubled, by the inquiries of the 

 great ornithologists already mentioned; and also 

 by the discoveries of Sir Joseph Banks, Manduit, 

 Desfontaines, Dombey, Vaillant, and many 

 others. The class Amphibia, though not so much 

 extended, by the discovery of new genera and 



h Essay totuard the Natural History of the Corallines, and other Marine 

 JProdusiions of tie like Kind, 4tO. I77J. 



