Natural History of British Zoophytes. 227 



" Now, for the smallness of the pores, which the Doctor has men- 

 tioned here (among the Corallines) to be a contradiction to animal 

 life ; he certainly has forgot one circumstance, when he introduces 

 the Corallium pumilum album, (Essay Cor. t. 27- f- c.) or his Mil- 

 lepora calcarea (Pall. Elench. p. 265,) as an animal, which is, that 

 he there says, it has absolutely no pores at all. 



" As there can be no doubt, but every part of what is called Co- 

 ralline is necessary to make out such an animal, or being, it will be 

 very difficult, if not almost impossible, to determine the proportion 

 there ought to be between softer and harder parts ; and therefore it 

 cannot be thought unreasonable to say, that in some of this tribe the 

 stony parts are by much the greater part of the whole, especially as 

 Doctor Pallas's objection can be only against the crust, or lapides- 

 cent part, as the inside of many of them is far from being hard, be- 

 ing exactly like a Sertularia, so that I do not know if it would not 

 be a good definition to one well acquainted with that tribe to say, 

 a Coralline is a Sertularia, covered with a stony or calcareous crust ; 

 if the mouths should happen to be very small, their number may 

 make up that deficiency. We see in the greatest number of coral- 

 lines their surface full of holes ; we saw the same in Escharas and 

 Milleporas thirty years ago ; since that time magnifying glasses have 

 been improved, so as to shew us, that they are all orifices for polype- 

 like suckers ; why should not we now admit that glasses may be 

 still more improved, so as even to make us able to see what may be 

 the intention and use of these minute orifices, which according to 

 all rules of reasoning, we must suppose to approach in nature to them 

 they are most alike. From this extreme minuteness then of the 

 pores of these Milleporae, confessed to be zoophytes, as well as those 

 of Corallina officinalis as before mentioned, it is no great matter of 

 surprise, that Doctor Jussieu could not perceive any animal life in 

 the corallines, nor Doctor Schlosser in the Millepora calcarea. As 

 these experiments ought to be attended with many convenient coin- 

 ciding circumstances that do not often happen to persons who only 

 go to the sea side, perhaps for a few days or hours, so that it is un- 

 reasonable to conclude, because they have been unsuccessful, that 

 more accurate observers may not be more fortunate at another time." 

 — Having thus disposed of an argument which he couldnot distinctly 

 answer, Ellis goes on to notice the fact of the coralline which had 

 been found on Bergummer heath in Friesland, and which the vague- 

 ness of the manner in which the discovery was announced per- 

 mitted or warranted him to ascribe to accident ; and he then con- 

 cludes his admirable essay with a faithful and minute account of the 



