26 MEMOIR OF PALLAS. 
synonyms of authors to his species, was quite 
remarkable for an author of twenty-five years of 
age, and his ‘ Introduction’ was still more so. With 
regard to corals, he pointed out the errors of the 
prevailing opinion, as if they had been a mere hive 
so to speak, to the polypes. He demonstrated that 
their trunk itself is living; that it is a kind of ani- 
mal tree, with its branches and heads; a composite 
animal, the stony portion of which is nothing more 
than the common skeleton which grows, as do the 
animals, but is not fabricated by them. Linneus 
was the first who energetically supported these bold 
views, which are now adopted by every one.” 
Pallas’s ideas concerning true corals excited the 
attention of our countryman Ellis, who wrote an 
admirable essay in reply, which silenced, if it did 
not convince, his able adversary. It is somewhat 
curious, notwithstanding the advance which has 
been made in this department,* how truly it might 
still be remarked concerning these doubtful genera, 
the sponges and coralines, in the very words of our 
author, “ At verum fabricam eruere, hoc opus, hic 
labor est.” 
The history of our rising zoologist, not to say 
Zoology itself, was this same year (1766) distin- 
guished by another and scarcely less remarkable 
production of his pen. In this goodly quarto, of 
more than two hundred pages, adorned with four- 
* See Dr. Johnston’s Paper on the Nat. Hist. of British 
Zoophytes, in the Magazine of Zoology and Botany, vol. i. 
p- 229; and his History of British Zoophytes, 1838. 
