A history of the British zoophytes / [George Johnston].

  • George Johnston
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of the British zoophytes / [George Johnston]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    scriptions of the species which fell under his notice with illus- trative figures of considerable accuracy. His “* Historia Natu- rale,” of which De Blainville assuredly speaks in very exag- gerating terms when he represents it as one of the most 1m- portant works in the history of zoophytology, was printed at Naples in 1599; but although reprinted some years after- wards (1672), the book, and the knowledge it contained, had sunk into such complete oblivion, that when Peyssonnel, in the year 1727, communicated the same discovery to the Academy of Sciences in Paris, it was received by the members of that learned body in a manner which is sufficient to convince us that it was entirely new to them, and exposed the author to the ob- Joquy and censure which are the usual portions of an original discoverer. Some time previously to the publication of Peyssonnel’s dis- covery, those who maintained that the stony zoophytes were plants had received a strong corroboration of their opinion from the researches of Count Marsigli, who, having detected the ex- istence of polypes in coral and madrepore, had, under the influ- ence of the fashionable theory, described them as being literal- ly their blossoms or flowers.* Peyssonnel, therefore, had to contend not only against the prejudices of the vulgar based on appearances which spoke direct to the outward sense, but against the actual observations of a naturalist of acknowledged merit ; and the observations of Peyssonnel, although numerous and unequivocal, were yet mixed up with so much that was fanciful or erroneous, that it is not wonderful his opinion was received with coldness and suspicion. Reaumur, to whom Peyssonnel’s communication was intrusted, even concealed the name of the rod and directing the attention of two wondering visitors to the more remarkable of them, while a third leans against a cabinet, and surveys, “_________not without much content “ Its many singularities.” . The book contains besides many wood-cuts of a miscellaneous kind, very tolera- bly engraved for the age. The Zoophytes figured belong chiefly to the Litho- phyta, with some Sponges and Alcyonia. The opinions of Rumphius seem to have been as explicitly stated as those of Imperato, but they effected nothing. — Pall. Elench. 14, and 275. * « Ce fut une découverte qui fit grand bruit dans le monde naturaliste, que celle des fleurs du corail.” Reaumur.—Marsigli’s work was published in 1711. His name is sometimes written Marsilli.—For an account of his works see Hal- ler, Bib. Bot. i, 630.
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