THE "WOXDEHS OF THE SHORE. 141 



if the coralline were, as had often been thought, 

 a zoophyte, the water would become corrupt, and 

 poisonous to the life of the small animals in the 

 same jar ; and that its remaining fresh argued 

 that the coralline had reoxygenated it from time 

 to time, and was therefore a vegetable. 



In 1850, Mr. Robert Warington communicated 

 to the Chemical Society the result of a year's 

 experiments, " On the Adjustment of the Re- 

 lations between the Animal and Vegetable 

 Kingdoms, by which the vital Functions of both 

 are permanently maintained." The law which 

 his experiments verified was the same as that on 

 which ;Mr. "Ward, in 1842, founded his invaluable 

 proposal for increasing the purity of the air in 

 large towns, by planting trees, and cultivating 

 flowers in rooms, that the animal and vegetable 

 respirations might counterbalance each other ; the 

 aniinal'.-i blood being [)urifif'd by the oxygen given 

 off by the plants, the plants fed by the carbonic 

 acid breathed out by the animals. 



On the same principle, Mr. "Waringlon first 

 kfi)t for many niontlis, in a vase of unchanged 

 water, two small gold-fi.^h and a plant of Vallis- 

 nerin .spiralis ; ami two years afterwards began 

 a similar experiment with i^ea-water, weeds, and 



