[ 28 i ] 
above them in the fcale of nature, as being one ftep 
nearer to the appearance of animals. 
If we confult the ancients, we fliall find, that, in 
the days of Ariftotle, the perfons, who made it their 
bufinefs to colled; thefe fubftances, perceived a par- 
ticular fenfation, like fiirinking, when they tore them 
off the rocks j and, in the time of Pliny, the fame 
opinion continued of their having a kind of feeling 
or animal life in them ; but after his time no atten- 
tion was paid to this kind of knowledge, and it ftill 
remained a doubt, till the illuflrious Count Marfigli 
pronounced them vegetable, as he did all the corals, 
keratophytons, and alcyoniums, &c. 
After him, it fell to the lot of the ingenious Dr. 
Peyfonell, in his Enquiries, to difcover them to be 
animals, or rather, as he calls it, the fabric of ani- 
mals, formed by a fpecies of urtica marina (fee his 
manufcript which he fent to the Royal Society in 
the year 1752); but finding upon re-examining 
thefe intricate bodies in fea water at Guadaloupe, he 
favours the Royal Society with a letter dated from 
thence, March i, 1757. Vid. Phil. Tranfadt. vok L. 
p. 592. wherein he has given a particular account 
of the animal, which he alfures us forms thefponges. 
There is fomething fo remarkable in his defcriptioii 
of the animal, and its manner of fabricating the 
fponge, that I am obliged to quote the mofi; ftriking 
parts, in order to fubmit the probability of it to you 
and the reft of the Royal Society. 
He takes notice, “ that the fame kind of animal 
“ forms the four principal fpecies of fponges deferibed 
“ by Father Plumier, as the tube Jponge, the cord- 
“ like JpongCf the digitated fponge^ and the honey'- 
“ comb fp 072 ge. 
VoL. LV. O o 
« Thefe 
