408 Eepokt of the State Geologist. 



Eeatjmitk consider Peysonnelle's belief to be, and so great was his 

 contempt for his doctrine, that while presenting it to the Acad- 

 emy, he not only vigorously combatted the idea, but suppressed 

 Peysonnelle's name in connection with the article. 



At the same meeting of the Academy Reaumur read a paper 

 'explaining the growth of corals in accordance with vegetable 

 physiology. (See Hist, de I'Acad. Royale des Sci. p. 61, and also 

 Reaumur's memoir in the same volume, p. 380.) 



In his communication to the Academy Peysonnellb main- 

 tained that the organisms described by Mabsigli as flowers were 

 analogous to the Actinia, whose animal nature was admitted, 

 and that the hard parts were formed by a fluid deposited by the 

 animal, which afterward hardened, and that in these parts was no 

 trace of vegetable organism, mixing up the principal truth, 

 namely, the animality of corals, with many false conclusions 

 from observations. 



Peysonnelle seems to be remembered chiefly by this discovery, 

 which, though previously recorded by Impekato, was to all intents 

 original, as Imperato's writings were at that time practically 

 unknown. According to the Philosophical Transactions '' M. 

 Peysonnelt e, disposed from his youth to the study of natural 

 history, after having qualified himself for the practice of medi- 

 cine, applied himself with great diligence to the practice of 

 that science, to which his inclination so strongly prompted him, 

 and being a native of, and residing at Marseilles he had an 

 opportunity for examining the curiosities of the sea, which the 

 fishermen, more especially those who fished for corals, furnished 

 him with." According to Johnston (History of British Zoo- 

 phytes) he was subsequently appointed Physician-Botanist to 

 his " Most Christian Majesty " in the island of Guadaloupe, and 

 had every opportunity for prosecuting his researches on • the 

 coast of Barbary. He is the author of two or three communi- 

 cations to the Philosophical Transactions, of which the most 

 interesting is " An account of the visitation of Leprous persons 

 in the isle of Guadaloupe," in the volume for the year 1757. 



In the year 1741, Abraham Tremble y, while making experi- 

 ments on the fresh-water Hydra, which had been discovered by 

 Lekuwenhook in 1702, especially on its reproductive power, dis- 



