DEDICATION.
Whatever of interest or value there is to be found in these pages is earnestly inscribed
To the Memory
OF
JEAN ANDRÉ DE PEYSONNEL,
who ventured to announce to the men of science of the Royal
Academies of Europe in the eighteenth century that the
Coral was the product of animal life, and not of vegetable
growth. In answer to his simple discovery and honest declaration,
the naturalist was met with a storm of contempt and derision that
eventually wrecked his happiness and his life.