^IQ Natural History of British Zoophytes. 



tain a volatile salt or animal oil ; the pores observable in their cal- 

 careous portion are too small to be the habitations of polypes, and 

 similar pores can be detected on fuci ; no polypes nor any visible 

 token of life could be discovered by Jussieu in any coralline, a species 

 of which, moreover, a iMr Meese had found growing upon a heath 

 in Friesland ; and lastly, the fructification of corallines is very si- 

 milar to that of fuci and conferva;. 



Were these the deductions of correct observation and experiment 

 they would unquestionably have been conclusive, but some of them 

 were already known to be contrary to the fact, and the others were 

 weakened with doubts and uncertainties. Ellis, conscious of his su- 

 perior knowledge both of marine botany and zoophytology, put forth 

 an answer to this attack which is remarkable for clear arrangement, 

 and for candid and honourable bearing to his opponent, who had 

 scarcely deserved this at his hand.* Having shewn that the pre- 

 sumed coralline which Pallas had compared to a fucus or sea-weed, 

 was in fact a fucus, Ellis proceeded to prove how widely different 

 every coralline was in structure and texture from any conferva; ; 

 and that the former, contrary to Pallas's assertion, not only gave out 

 when burned " an offensive smell like that of burnt bones or hair," 

 but afforded also on careful analysis both volatile alkali and em- 

 pyreumatic oil.t " Doctor Pallas," Ellis continues, " proceeds to 

 prove that corallines cannot be animals, as the pores of their cal- 

 careous substances are too minute for any polypes to harbour in. 

 These words of the Doctor's seem to imply, as if the coralline sub- 

 stances were only habitations for detached polypes, and not part of 

 the animals themselves. How this affair stands, I hope to have 

 clearly demonstrated long before this, for I have plainly seen, and 

 endeavoured to shew mankind, that the softer and harder parts of 

 zoophytes are so closely connected with one another, that they can- 

 not separately exist, and therefore have not hesitated to call them 

 constituent parts of the same body, and that the polype-like suckers 

 are so many mouths belonging thereto. 



* It appears from the Lin. Corresp. Vol. i. p. 186, that Pallas had written 

 disrespectfully of Ellis. In his Elen. Zoophytorum the latter, however, is pro- 

 fusely complimented : — " Ellisium subtilitate atque acumine observationum om- 

 nes super eminentem," — Prsef. p. x — is praise enough surely, but its sincerity 

 might be questionable. 



f This character, as Lamouroux remarks, is insufficient, seeing that the major 

 part of marine plants give out, in burning, odours and products analogous to those 



of animals Cor. Flex. p. 12. It is now well known that chemistry affords us, 



in its minute analyses, no test between animal and vegetable matter.. — See Prout's 

 Bridgewater Treat, p. 415, and more particularly Tiedemann's Comp. Physiology, 

 p. 48, &c. 



