5 
Previous to the excellent remarks of Mons. Jussieu, corals were 
regarded entirely as marine plants ; and consequently were con- 
sidered as belonging to the vegetable kingdom. As their nature 
became more known, their claims, to be ranked among the subjects 
of the animal kingdom, were more generally acknowledged ; whilst 
the general forms under which they existed irresistibly led to the 
conclusion, that these, at least, must depend on the process of vegeta- 
tion. They were, therefore, frequently regarded as a class of beings, 
which, deriving their existence from the energies both of vegetable 
and of animal life, formed the connecting link of the two kingdoms ; 
and hence the situation allotted for them by classification has some- 
times been the last genus of animals, and the first of vegetables. 
Indeed when, together with their vegetable forms, certain circum- 
stances in their growth are also considered, the passing from the 
investigation of vegetables, directly to that of these bodies, appears 
to be the most rational progress of inquiry. The mind is then best 
enabled, by the inquiry in which it was last engaged, to form the 
necessary comparison, and to adjudge how little vegetation has been 
concerned in the production of beings, which appear to possess so 
many properties in common with plants, as to have forced those who 
most strongly denied their partaking in the least degree of a vege- 
table nature, into the necessity, whilst speaking of them, of employ- 
ing figurative language entirely borrowed from the vegetable kingdom. 
This consideration alone seems sufficient to direct their being disposed 
of, nearly in that situation, in which they are placed by Wallerius, 
and which it is here intended they shall also retain. But another 
consideration, of still greater force, urges that their fossil remains 
should be examined previously to those of other animals. The nature 
of the changes which animal substances undergo, whilst passing into 
a mineral state, is but little known, and considerable difficulties op- 
pose the attempt to ascertain the modes, by which nature has deter- 
mined, that this particular change shall be accomplished. The greatest 
