1S-13.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



383 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF CORAL FORMATIONS, AND THEIR 



ARCHITECTS. 



No. II. 



According to the doctrine of the Pythagoreans and Platonists, there is 

 life in all things, the living principle being omnipresent and inseparable from 

 matter, regulating, modulating, and reconciling the various actions and 

 parts of this mundane system. This living principle is the electric fluid of 

 modern philosophers, being equally manifest in the living, the fossil and 

 mineral kingdoms, giving form and properties to all : thus plants are distin- 

 guished from minerals only from their flexile nature, which enables them to 

 multiply their parts and quantities to a certain extent without impeding the 

 action of the living principle : the line of division of the animal, the vege- 

 table and the mineral, is life, the link of life being one unbroken chain, com- 

 mencing with the, to us, invisible point, and ending in the beautifully com- 

 plicated mechanism of man: life in all being a measure of quantities and a 

 measure of motions, continually varying, and finally dissolved. The great 

 inherent property of organic life is to condense the elements, and to unite 

 them in fixed and definite proportions within the body as animal and vege- 

 table matter, which on the cessation of living action, becomes under many 

 new combinations, fossil and mineral matter. The living and the dead are 

 bound by the same chain of necessity for the preservation of foim and 

 quantity, and for the capacities, qualities, and powers which they severally 

 develop, cause depending upon cause, effect depending upon effect. 



In the lowest development of life, plants and animals closely approximate 

 to each other in external character, the animal assuming the plant-Jike form, 

 and multiplying by involuntary action, as is manifest in millepores, sponges, 

 tubipora, and some species of coralline, and from thence distinguishable from 

 vegetable species by voluntary action. In these orders and in monas, the 

 line of demarcation as established by naturalists is removed ; the zoophytes 

 increasing by the vegetative process, their growth being perpendicular to the 

 plane of position, although not invariably so, for many species of coralline have 

 root, stem, and branch, the root increasing with the increase of the super- 

 structure. As life advances in the scale of organization, so the distinction 

 becomes apparent, until it becomes strongly defined, every advance in the 

 organical structure being indicated by the development of organs peculiar to 

 the animal, and explanatory of its habits and character. 



Linnaeus observes, "all calcareous substances are most truly of animal 

 production ; therefore corallines consisting of that substance do certainly 

 belong to the animal kingdom :" but even admitting this to be true, it offers 

 very little assistance to us. when we attempt to classify oceanic animal and 

 vegetable life, as exhibited in the numerous species of naked polyps and sea 

 weeds. On the other hand, it requires no very great stretch of imagination 

 to suppose that plants having great absorbent powers and disposed very 

 often un a calcareous soil, or otherwise in waters holding in suspension car- 

 bonate of lime, should receive and retain within their system or become en- 

 veloped with a crust of this material. 



Mr. Kllis, demonstrating the animal nature of corallines, tells us that the 

 softer and harder parts of zoophytes are so closely connected with one 

 another, that they cannot separately exist, being constituent, parts of the 

 same body, the polype-like suckers being so many mouths thereto. 'Ibis is 

 correct, as regards species having these suckers, and is equally applicable to 

 many of the stony corals, the suckers being the seat of sensation and volun- 

 tary action of all that part of the calcareous base which admits of the in- 

 gross and egress of the circulating fluid. The branchiform corals have their 

 suckers disposed at the extremity ol the branches and offshoots, and through 

 these alone the whole body receives its nutriment, and by their expanding 

 and contracting action and conducting powers of heat, the descent and ascent 

 ol the circulating juices is regulated. The cellular cavities covering the 

 mam trunk and branches lined with a membraneous substance bear no simi- 

 litude to the suckers disposed at the extremities, nor do they perform the 

 like diuies, but similate more to the respiratory vessels of plants, gradually 

 diminishing in size, and eventually when the entire form is developed, closing 

 nllo'-elher, leaving the trunk still accessible in all its parts, until the whole 

 lower portion consolidates, or it becomes entombed by increasing generations. 

 It is certainly a mistaken notion that every cell throughout the body 

 is the habitation of a polyp, for while we admit that animal matter pervades 

 the whole body, we can only admit it to be one body in entirety, increasing 

 and propagating through the instrumentality of its suckers which perform 

 the active duties, conducting the food into the main trunk and branches, 

 wherein it is elaborated into lime, gelatine, oil, phosphorus, and other peculiar 

 compounds, the b dy fixed and immoveable being the passive medium of 

 action, and receiving increasing size and solidity nom continued accession of 

 elaborated matters. 



Ehrenberg tells us that tripoli, chalk, and other substances, when micros- 

 copically examined, display a cellular structure, the tenanted and untenanted 

 habitations of polypidoms ; and that every cell is undoubtedly the habitation 



of a polyp living, maturing and generating, independent of those connected 

 with it. The radiate corals are of compound animal formation, the several 

 tentacuhe or suckers being one body, united at the base, and governed by the 

 one impulse; thus it is their growth is uniform and their form defined. 

 Each of these suckers forms during the period of its growth a series of cells 

 or joints, which communicating with the main body, accelerate the general 

 increase of the whole, and enatile the polyp to withstand more effectually 

 outward influences, and to propagate its species : the branched madrepores 

 are as previously observed, of plant-like growth, covered with cylindrical 

 turbinate pores, the whole compound body being one, and uniformly governed 

 by one impulse. 



The polypous animal like the plant is the unconscious architect of its own 

 existence, both advance in the line of light and heat, and ramify into shoots 

 and branches according to their cellular composition and structure, both are 

 the unconscious agents of production and reproduction of peculiar ele- 

 mentary compounds, and botli perform an equally important part in the 

 economy of nature. 



The very recent report of Mr. Edward Forbes on the Mollusca and Radiata 

 of the vKgean Sea, drawn up at the request of the British Association, con- 

 firms in a most remarkable manner the laws I have laid down as regulating 

 oceanic animal and vegetable life, in disposition, quantities, and qualities 

 illustrating the progressive development of species, habit and character, and 

 consequently the gradual development of the fossil and mineral kingdoms 

 He observes, that in eight distinct regions of depth, each presents its peculiar 

 association of species defined between and 230 fathoms ; the most superfi- 

 cial of these, although the least extensive, having a depth of only two fa- 

 thoms, being most prolific of animal and vegetable life, and most various in 

 mineral character. The second region ranges from 2 to 10 fathoms, the 

 third from 10 to 20, the fourth from 20 to 35, the fifth from 35 to 55, the 

 sixth from 55 to 75, the seventh from 75 to 105, the eighth exceeding in ex- 

 tent all the others combined, ranging from 105 to the lowest depths explored, 

 and presenting a uniform mineral character throughout and peculiar fauna. 

 Certain species were found to range through several of these zones, and two 

 through all. It was found to be a law, that the extent of range of a species is 

 correspondent with the extent of its geographical distribution. On the other 

 hand, species having a very limited range in depth were found to be either 

 peculiar Mediterranean forms, or such as are extremely rare in the zKgean, 

 but abundant in more northern seas. The testacea of the /F.gean are for the 

 most part dwarfs, as compared with their analogues in the ocean, and the 

 number of medusae and zoophytes are comparatively small. Below the 

 fourth region in depth the number of animals diminishes as we descend, 

 until, in the lowest part of the eighth region the number of ttstacea leas found to 

 be only eight. In the upper regions the more southern forms prevailed, 

 wdnlst those of the lower zones presented a northern character, indicating a 

 probable, law, that in the distribution of marine animals, regions of depths are 

 equivalent to parallels of latitude. A corresponding succession and replace- 

 ment of forms by similar forms was discovered in depth. Each species at- 

 tains a maximum in development of individuals, and gradually diminishes in 

 numbers as we descend ; out before its disappearance in many genera, a re- 

 presentative species commences, attaining a maximum after the disappear- 

 ance of its predecessor, and then in like manner, diminishing to a minimum 

 and disappearing. Genera are in like manner, represented and replaced by 

 corresponding genera. This is equally true with vegetables as with animals. 

 Green luci were found as deep as 55 fathoms, and millepora extends its 

 range to 105 fathoms. 



Within the waters of the Pacific Ocean several hundred thousand square 

 miles of habitable land have been formed or are now forming, through the 

 agency of gelatinous and lime-secreting polyps, aided by innumerable fami- 

 lies of shell fish, marine plants, and locomotive animals with which the 

 waters abound. Hills and chains of hills, mountains and mountain chains, 

 running alone the tidal lines gradually enlarge their summits as these waters 

 decrease, and for upwards ot 4000 miles not a single island occurs that is not 

 of coral formation. The great reef on the coast of New Holland extends 

 its uninterrupted course 350 miles, and forms a continuous line with others 

 to the extent of 1000 miles, varying in breadth from 20 to 50miles : the lower 

 plains of the vast continent of Australia have the l;ke origin, and throughout 

 the whole Australian seas there is scarcely one league without a coral reef, 

 rock, or island, raised from the lower depths by polypous animals, though 

 close to within the reef ihe sea is fathomless : thus the whole extent of this 

 portion of the ocean is rapidly filling up, and the main continent continually 

 enlarges its geographical area. 



In the south sea, particularly to the eastward of the Friendly Islands, from 

 the 10th to the 15th latitude, a reef of coral surrounds the island of Ota - 

 heite rising like a wall from unfathomable depths. Palmerston island, the 

 islands of Tanea, Middleburgh, Tongataboo, Magea, and numberless islands 

 of the South Sea and Pacific Ocean are of like formations. The coral reef 

 and islands called the Maldives form a chain of 480 geographical miles in 

 length, running due north and south. The whole line of coast of Eastent 

 Africa, the island of Madagascar, and other islands scattered over the 



