POLYPES. 181 



the water." Whoever examines a fragment of 

 the polypary of any of the varieties of white 

 coral, will find it to consist of innumerable ra- 

 diating tubes, variously intercepted, all of which 

 appear to issue from a common base ; these are 

 the receptacles of the general body of the polype, 

 while the connected individuals with their blos- 

 soms inhabit an infinity of cells opening exter- 

 nally, from which the tentacles issue to collect 

 their food. 



The seemingly insignificant creatures here 

 described, and which seem as little animalized 

 as any animal can be to retain a right to the 

 name, all whose means of action are confined 

 to their tentacles, and whose sole employment 

 appears to be the collection and absorption of 

 the beings that form their food, are employed 

 by their Creator, to construct and rear mighty 

 fabrics in the bosom of the deep. He has so or- 

 ganized them, that from their food and the waters 

 of the ocean, which by a constant expansion 

 and contraction they absorb and expel, they are 

 enabled to separate, or elaborate, calcareous par- 

 ticles with which they build up, and are con- 

 tinually enlarging, their structures ; forming them 

 into innumerable cells, each inhabited by an in- 

 dividual animal, which however is not insulated 

 and separated from the parent body, but forms a 

 part of a many headed and many mouthed mon- 

 ster, which, at every oral orifice, is collecting the 



