PALAEONTOLOGY. 389 



Milne-Edwards first revealed the anatomical structure of 

 zoophyte organisms, and made it possible to differentiate them 

 from a number of other forms with which they had been 

 erroneously included in previous classificatory systems. 

 Ehrenberg based his classification of coral zoophytes exclu- 

 sively on the characters of recent corals, more especially on his 

 examination of the Red Sea corals. The number of tentacles 

 was, in his opinion, the leading feature of distinction; according 

 to it he erected the main sub-divisions of his classification. 



Fossil corals were described and figured in most of the 

 larger palnsontological works that appeared during the first 

 half of the nineteenth century. The illustrative plates of 

 Golclfuss (1826), Michelin (1841-47), Lonsdale and MacCoy 

 display a large number of fossil species, but notwithstanding 

 the advances that were being made in the knowledge of living 

 corals, the systematic treatment of fossil corals in these works 

 is as crude and antiquated as in the much earlier works of 

 Guettard, Parkinson, and Schlotheim. The profound and 

 exhaustive works of Milne-Edwards l and Haime revolutionised 

 the study of corals. These scientists made a thorough investi- 

 gation of the organisation of living polyps, and from that 

 proceeded to examine group after group of the fossil corals, 

 directing attention equally to the evidences afforded by the 

 skeleton regarding the original form and structure of the fossil 

 polyps, and to the phylogenetic indications given by the 

 occurrence and distribution of the fossil faunas in the strati- 

 graphical succession. The penetrating critical instinct and 

 unbiassed judgment of the authors produced a work which is 

 recognised to be one of the most skilful that has ever appeared 

 in scientific literature. The classificatory system of Milne- 

 Edwards and Haime is based upon the character of the septa 

 and the mode of their increase in number, and with a few 

 modifications, the system has remained until the present day. 



Later works on fossil corals for the most part dealt with 

 the coral faunas of particular localities or of a particular 

 stratigraphical horizon. Of special value are the monographs 

 of Reuss, Fromentel, De Koninck, Koby, Hall, Becker, 



1 Henri Milne-Edwards, born 1800 in Bruges, studied medicine in 

 Paris, and was at first the Professor of Natural History in the College 

 Henri IV., then in 1841 at the Museum. In the year 1862 he was 

 appointed Professor of Zoology, and two years later Director of the 

 Museum; died 1885 in Paris. 



