Dr. Mantell’s Lecture on Zoophytes. 333 
reefs, and finally of islands and even continents. A painting of a 
circular island produced by these animalcule was exhibited, Dr. M. 
describing it from the graphic account of Capt. Flinders, and shew- 
ing how it first appeared above the waters, then gradually acquired a 
covering of soil in which a few plants took root ; sea fowl frequented 
it and brought seeds of other vegetables; these grew, and cocoa nuts 
wafted thither by the currents, took root, and palms shed their beau- 
tiful foliage over the new isle; lastly, man discovered it, erected his 
hut upon it, and called himself lord of this new creation. Surely, 
said Dr. Mantell, it is to an insular paradise of this kind that our 
inimitable poet Moore alludes in those exquisite lines— 
Oh! had we some bright little isle of our own, 
In a blue summer ocean far off and alone, 
Where a leaf never dies in the still-blooming bowers, 
And the bee banquets on through a whole year of Homer &e, 
The lecturer then proceeded to the consideration of the fossil corals, 
which are found in various parts of England, illustrating his re- 
marks with descriptions and the exhibition of specimens; and lastly, 
described the extraordinary animal called Encrinite, which is not a 
coral, but allied to the star fish, and has a long articulated column, 
on the top of which is a cup-shaped receptacle furnished with nu- 
merous tentacula or feelers on the margin; this contained the body 
of the animal, the mouth being in the centre, and the feelers serving 
and conveying the prey into it, as in the polypi of the zoophytes. 
The animal when spread out resembled a flower, and when closed, 
was very like a lily with the petals partially shut. The skeleton, 
which was alone found ina fossil state, consisted of an immense 
number of bones: upwards of thirty thousand had been counted in 
one individual. ‘The Derbyshire limestone is entirely made up of 
the petrified bones of these animals, and owes its beautiful markings 
to the sections of their remains. We have seen, says Dr. Mantell, 
the marvellous organization of being so minute as to be invisible to 
the naked eye, their modes of life and action, and the important 
physical changes effected by such apparently inadequate agents. 
What beautiful, what striking proofs of the wisdom and goodness of 
the Eternal are here exhibited. Beings are called into existence, 
so minute as to elude our unassisted vision, yet possessing powers 
of voluntary motion and sensation, each with its system of muscles 
and vessels, and living upon beings still more minute, of which mill- | 
ions might be contained in a drop of water; nay, even that these 
Vou. XX XUHI.—No. 2. 43 
