LECTURE XII. 199 



uera or kinds, instituted from the structure and 

 appearance of the Coral or hard part, and the af- 

 finity which the animal or softer part bears to some 

 other genus among the soft-bodied Animals or 

 Mollusca. The Zoophytes therefore unite the 

 -animal and vegetable kingdoms, and fill up the 

 intermediate space. 



By the ancients most of the Zoophytes were 

 considered as plants ; but in later times some phi- 

 losophers have imagined them rather to belong to 

 the mineral kingdom, fancying that they grew or 

 increased somewhat in the manner of crystals and 

 other regularly figured bodies. 



About the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury some observations were made on the com- 

 mon red coral, and some other species, by Count 

 Marsigli, which seemed to prove them of a vege- 

 table nature ; for on gathering them perfectly 

 fresh, and placing them in sea water, they appear- 

 ed to put forth small flowers from all the minute 

 cavities or hollow points on the surface. These 

 therefore were considered as a convincing proof 

 that coral was a plant. The arguments against 

 this theory were, the animal odor which they dif- 

 fused in burning, and a greater degree of sensibi- 



