64 PEYRONNET. JOHN ELLIS. 



all seasons ; and only described what he had actually 

 beheld. Nor was this all, he did not stop at the 

 examination of their form and movements : by 

 chemical analysis, he had discovered in polyps the 

 constituent principles of animals, and that the stony 

 part bore no trace of vegetable organization ; he 

 had found, moreover, that as they decayed the odour 

 of animal substances was exhaled. But prejudice 

 has neither eyes nor ears, and is equally deficient in 

 attention and judgment. 



Our countryman, John Ellis, already mentioned, 

 is also entitled in this connexion to honourable 

 mention. Accustomed to amuse himself by^skilfully 

 and curiously arranging sea weeds and corallines on 

 paper, he was led by the beauty and elegance of the 

 latter, to examine them minutely by the aid of the 

 microscope. It was now instantly manifest that 

 they differed not more from each other in form, 

 than they did in texture, and that in many of them 

 there were indications of a nearer alliance to an 

 animal than a vegetable nature. Encouraged by 

 some of the members of the Royal Society, he pro- 

 secuted his inquiries with great ardour and sagacity, 

 and soon convinced himself that "these apparent 

 plants were ramified animals." His essay on coral- 

 lines and other marine productions commonly found 

 on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, is a work 

 which does him great credit. 



The researches of Ellis left no space for doubt. 

 By the aid of the microscope, he saw the living 



