DEDICATION.
Reading edition
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.