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prefence. He placed it in a large veflel full of water ; 
and carried this vefifel on fhore ; where he foon con- 
vinced Dr. Afcanius, by his own eyes, that coral is 
a mafs of animals of the polype-kind. 
Monf. Donati has written to me, that he has tho- 
roughly fatisfied himfelf by his laft obfervations, that 
the polypes are fixed to their cells ; of which he had 
before doubted. What he fays afterwards of coral 
appears to me to exprefs with more truth and pre- 
cifion what we ought to think of this kind of ani- 
mals, than any of the defcriptions, which have been 
given fince the new difcoveries have changed our 
fentiments on that fubjedt. Polype-beds, and the 
cells, which they contain, are commonly fpoken of 
as being the work of polypes. They are compared 
to the honeycomb made by bees. It is more exadt 
to fay, that coral, and other coralline bodies, have 
the fame relation to the polypes united to them, that 
there is between the fhell of a fnail and the fnail 
itfelf, or between the bones of an animal, and the 
animal itfelf. Monf. Donati’s words are as follow. 
tc I am now of opinion, that coral is nothing elfe 
“ than a real animal, which has a very great number 
<c of heads. I confider the polypes of coral only as 
“ the heads of the animal. This animal has a bone 
<c ramified in the fhape of a fhrub. This bone is 
<c covered with a kind of fleih, which is the flefli 
c< of the animal. My obfervations have difcovered 
<l to me feveral analogies between the animals of 
cc kinds approaching to this. There are, for inftance, 
“ keratophyta, which do not differ from coral, ex- 
<l cept in the bone or part, that forms the prop of the 
“ animal. In the coral it is teflaceous, and in the 
‘‘ keratophyta it is horny.” 
The 
