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THE Public have a claim on the Editor of the following meets, 

 to account for the imperfect ftate in which they now make 

 their appearance; and, at the fame time, it is hoped that a fhort 

 account of the endeavours of the Author to promote fo curious and 

 laudable a ftudy, will not be deemed an impertinent intrUfion on the 

 patience of the reader. 



Mr. Ellis 9 having difcovered that feveral fubjedts, which had been 

 arranged by Natural Hiftorians under the title of Marine Vegetables, 

 were in. reality Animal Productions,, published, in the year 1755, the 

 refult of the refearches he had made in the inveftigation of that 

 branch of knowledge, in a quarto work intitled, " An Eflay towards 

 " a Natural Hiftory of Britiih and Iriih Corallines.*' The approba- 

 tion with which this work was received, gained the Author the ac- 

 quaintance and patronage of many of the moil: refpectable characters 

 of the age : and an innate defire to dive deeper into the hidden 

 treafures of nature, induced him to make thofe inquiries which pro- 

 duced feveral Memoirs, which were read at different times before the 

 Royal Society, and published in the ' Philofophical Transactions ; par- nexe^Lift! 

 ticularly thofe " on the animal nature of Zoophytes, called Corallina" 

 and "the Affiinia Sociata, or • Cluftered Animal Flower" in the 57 th 

 volume, which gained him the honour of Sir Godfrey Copley's medal 

 from that learned body, delivered to him by the Preiident, Sir .John 

 Pringle, on the 30th of November, 1768, together with a moft flat- 

 tering compliment in a fpeech from the chair, on the nature and g ee ^ 

 utility of the difcoveries of the Author. annexed. 



Thus encouraged, Mr. Ellis became more anxious in the.puriuit of 

 his favourite itudy ; and being then the king's agent for the pro- 



B vince 



See the an» 



