Watfon. 305 
jmay be eallly feen that this refpedls the 
Corals, Corallines, Efcharcey Madrepores, 
Sponges, &c. and although even Gesner, 
Imperatus, and Rumphius, had fome 
obfcure ideas relating to the dubious ftruc- 
ture of this clafs, yet the full difcovery, that 
thefe fubftances were the fabrications of 
Polypes, was owning to M. Peyssonnel, 
phyfician at Guadaloupe. This gentleman 
had imbibed this opinion firft, in 1723, at 
Marfeilles and confirmed it, in 1725, on 
the coafl: of Barbary. While in Guada-- 
loiipe^ he wrote a volume of 400 pages in 
4°. in proof of this fubjedl, which he tranf- 
mitted in manufcript to the Royal So- 
ciety of London. This treatife, in which 
the author feemed to have put the matter 
out of doubt, as to the animal origin of 
thefe bodies, was tranflated, analyzed, and 
abridged, in 1752, by Mr. Watson ; 
and publifhed in the Philofophical Tranf- 
^Bions {o)[^ at a time when the learned 
were wavering in their opinions on this 
niatter, M. Trembly's inveftigation re- 
{q) Vol xlviL p, 445— 469* 
FoL. IL X fpc(^ling 
