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others •; infomuch that the bulk of writers, who 
have not feen thefe bodies except in their cabinets, 
have only confider’d their figures. They have deno- 
minated pora that clafs of them, which feem’d 
pierc’d with holes. Of thefe they found fome, the 
holes of which were large ; and thefe they call’d 
madrepora. 
There is another confufion among the writers con- 
cerning thefe bodies : all thofe, which had a tree-like 
form, whether their furfaces were fmooth, without 
holes, or whether they were rough and unequal with 
them, they were all together filed corals. Thofe of 
any other form than that juf now mentioned, were 
call’d madrepora, lithophyton, or alcyonium. It there- 
fore appears neceffary to ef ablifh fome effential cha- 
racters to be able to difinguifii thefe different bodies 
one from another; but before thefe marks of diffinc- 
tion are laid down, our author thinks proper to exa- 
mine, what thefe bodies are, and how they are formed. 
He proceeds to remark, that divers productions are 
found in the fea of a ffony nature. Thefe bodies 
are always equal, and always the fame in their dif- 
ferent fpecies : they have the fame arrangement of 
parts, the fame effential figure, and differ in no- 
thing but in their outward form, like different 
vegetables. They are all pierced with holes and 
pores, which are of the fame fize and figure, and 
are of the fame difpofition in each fpecies; fo 
that it appears evident, that they are all pro- 
duced from the fame matter. How they are pro- 
duced, and their mechanifm, has been hitherto un- 
known. 
Our 
