136 



ON THE SICILIAN CORAL FISHERY. 



VIII. 



On the Coral Fishery in the Sicilian Seas : by Alfio 

 Ferrara, M. D. 

 Mylarum aipontus, Drepanique, et siricta Pelori 

 Claustra ferunt avidis ramosa coraUia nuutis. 



Flaccomius in Sicelid. 



Communicated by the Author. 



©rnlmraE TTAVING for a long time employed myself in the study of 



tory worthy -^-^ the various natural productions, with which the sea that 



notice. bathes the Sicilian shores abounds, the coral was the first object 



to attract my notice. This beautiful and elegant ornament of 



the sea could not fail of deserving first to come under my 



The author's examination. I have been frequently present at the fishing of 



it, near the coast of Sicily : I have contemplated it in the very 



bottom of the sea, on its native spot : I have gathered it from 



stones, and shells, and other marine substances, recently taken 



out of the sea : I have had it worked in my presence : I have 



analysed the several varieties of it : in fine, I have extended my 



researches to whatever would give me the least insight into the 



nature of this substance, comparing the results of my own 



observations with every thing the ancients and moderns have 



written on the subject, and consulting in every point the treasures 



of natural history, with which the present day has been so 



abundantly enriched by the accurate experiments and luminous 



theories of the many great men of the last century. 



Object of the I have endeavoured in the present memoir to establish a clear 



^ P^^ ■ and precise notion of the origin, increase, and nature of coral. 



This work has been the more pleasing to me, as I flatter myself 



I have been able not only to confirm by my own observations 



what has been already written on the subject by former Philoso- 



sophers and Naturalists, but to add some new facts, that may 



tend to elucidate the history of this marine production, which 



has at all times as much occupied the researches of naturalists, 



as it has engaged the admiratiop of the fair sex, with whom the 



beauty of its colour, and brilliancy of its texture, have rendered 



it a favourite ornament of dress. 



Supposedtobe The ancients, attending only to its external form, conceived 



aiici^us ^ ' ^ ^°^^^ ^® ^^ ^ ]j\au\. ; to which from its ramifications it bears 



som9 



