226 THE OGEAN WORLD. 
Académie des Sciences charged him with the task of studying the 
coral in a living state. Peyssonnel began his observations in the 
neighbourhood of Marseilles in 1723, and continued to pursue.it on the 
North African coast, where he had been sent on a mission by the 
Government. Aided by a long series of observations, as exact as 
they were: delicate, Peyssonnel demonstrated that the supposed’ 
flowers which the Count de Marsigli thought he had discovered in 
the coral, were nothing else but true animals, and showed that the 
coral was neither plant nor the product of a plant, but a being’with 
life, which he placed in the first “‘rung ” of the zoological ladder. 
“JT put..the flower of the coral,” says Peyssonnel, “in vases full of: 
sea-water, and I saw that what had been taken for a flower. of .this. 
pretended plant was, in truth, only an animal, like a little sea-nettle, or 
polyp. Ihad the pleasure of seeing the feet of the creature move about, 
and having put the vase full of water, which contained the coral, in a 
gentle heat over the fire, all the small animals séemed “to expand. 
The polyp extended his feet, and showed what M. de Marsigli and I” 
had taken for the petals of a flower. The calyx of this pretended 
flower, in short, was the animal, which advanced and issued out of 
its cell.” : . 
The observations of Peyssonnel were calculated to put dltopethen 
aside the theories which had till then attracted universal admiration ; 
but they were coldly received by the naturalists who were his con: 
temporaries. Réaumur distinguished himself greatly in‘his opposition 
to the young innovator. .He wrote to Peyssonnel in an ironical. tone. 
“T think,” he says, “‘as you do, that no one has hitherto been dis- 
posed to regard the coral as the work of ananimal. We cannot deny 
that this idea is both new and singular; but the coral, as it appears 
to me, never could have been constructed by sea-nettles or polyps, if 
we may judge from the manner in which you make them labour.”. 
What appeared impossible to Réaumur was; however, a fact, 
which Peyssonnel now demonstrated to hundreds by his experiments 
at Marseilles. Nevertheless, even Bernard de- Jussieu did. not find 
the reasons he urged strong enough to-induce him to abandon the 
opinions he had:formed as to their vegetable origin, Afflicted and 
disgusted at the indifferent success’ with which his labours were 
received, _Peyssonnel abandoned his investigations. He even aban- 
doned science and society, and sought an obscure retirement in the 
Antilles as a naval surgeon ; and his manuscripts, which he left in 
France, have never been printed. These manuscripts, written in 
1744, are preserved in the library of the Museum of Natural History 
at Paris. It should be added, in. order to complete. this recital, that 
