BED OB PBEGIOUS COBAL. 3 



sidered it to be a plant, but they knew not its origin or forma- 

 tion. Ferrante Imperato also concluded that its vegetable nature 

 was evident, and Tournefort placed it amongst the stony marine 

 plants. Eumpf, however, from his practical acquaintance with 

 marine organisms, took a different view. This opinion was 

 further strengthened by Boccone's observation of the milky juice 

 in the living structure, and by Marsigli's discovery* of the pale 

 flowers, resembling cloves in shape, which appeared on its 

 surface. Boccone (the Sicilian), however, resiled from his 

 original view, and by-and-by combatted the notion that it was 

 a plant. Guisonseus, a physician of Avignon, in his letter to 

 Boccone, affirms positively that red coral is only a mineral, 

 composed of much, salt and a small quantity of earth, while its 

 form is given by precipitation, like that of the arbor Diana of 

 the chemists. Swammerdam, the celebrated savant of Holland, 

 held similar opinions. Dr. Woodward considered red corals 

 were stones, from their exceeding hardness and specific gravity, 

 and especially by observing that when calcined they were con- 

 verted into lime. The distinguished Beaumur at first thought 

 the independent central hard part was a concretion, whilst the 

 enveloping softer rind was the plant. He declined to believe 

 that the whole was formed by the so-called " insects," but he 

 subsequently, along with Bernard de Jussieu, after an examina- 

 tion of living polyps of various kinds on the shores of France, 

 wholly altered his opinion. 



As an example of the views in our own country about the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century (1705), Mr. Anthony van 

 Leeuwenhoek, F.B.S., may be cited. t He held that blood-coral 

 did not grow, but was coagulated on shells. It lost its colour by 

 heat, was not dissolved by either hot or cold water but was so 

 by acid (aqua fortis), that its hardness arose from the great 

 number of its fixed salts, and that it was composed of particles 

 which puzzled him greatly. He also assured himself that coral 

 can be of no manner of service — as physic — to the bodies of 

 men, " unless it were to amuse common people with uncommon 

 medicines, and thereby get themselves (that is, certain physicians) 



* 1706. ' Histoire Physique de la Mer.' 

 f Philo3. Trans. 1708-1709, pp. 126 et seq. 



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