Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/554

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earthy matter ; and on thefe its virtues in medicine principally depend. The red colour of" cor at is evidently owing to its bituminous oil, which it is found not difficult to feparate, and wholly divert it of. It isbbferved, that coral newly taken up out of the Tea contains both the felt and oil in greater abun- dance than that which has been long kept ; and it is fufpected by manyj that its external or cortical fubilancc contain;, more of it than the interior; harder, and mote ffony matter. The antients ufed coral in many external medicines for dif- temperatures of the eyes j and internally as an aftringent, and refrigerating medicine. We ufe it only internally, and that principally in diarfheeas, and bleedings, in too great evacua- tions of the menfes, and in the fluor albus. '1 he vulgar attribute to it, bcfide thefe virtues, many others, which we have not fufficient warrant for; fuch as its ftrengthening the he.irt, curing malignant fevers^ and refilling poifon ; and they tell us, that it will do all this as well if worn externally, as if taken inwardly ; which may very poflibly be true. Geof- froy, Mat. Med. Vol. 2. p. 254. ll'h.te Coral. There is no part of the world where white coral is produced in fuch abundance as on the fhorcs of the iiland of Ceylon, and other of the neighbouring Indian coafts. The lime ufed in that part of the world, for build- ing houfes, fortifications, &c. is all made by burning this coral. It lies in vail banks which are uncovered at low water, and it is fpungy and porous. While young, it grows erefl, in form of little fhrubs, and is then firm and folid, and fmooth on the furfacc, but the branches continually flioot out more, and thefe other new ones, till the whole is one confufed bufh. Thefe branches are all covered with a white vifcous matter, which, in time, hardens upon them, and becomes coral ; and this filling up all the interfaces between the branches, when they become fo numerous, and hardening between and over them, the whole becomes one coarfe rock, and the adjoining mafies of this kind uniting to one another, form at laft a continued bank, which has the appearance of a great white rock. In the places where the coral grows in this manner, there are like banks form- ed cf oyfter fhells ; the oyfters here grow often to a foot in diameter, and a foot in tbicknefs, and, it is faid, that they continue to incrcafe in bulk after the animal is dead.

. Phil. Tranf. N° 282. p. 1277.

FoJJtlc Coral. It has. been matter of furprize to naturalifts, that as red coral is fo common in the fea, and is. a fub- ftance of fo firm and durable a nature, it is not frequent- ly found among other remains of the fea productions in the foffile ftate. We find the tendercft fhells, the teeth and bones of fea fifties, and the white corals, in great abundance in the ftrata of earth and ftone ; yet there is fcarce one cer- tain account of red coral being found foflile. This had long puzzled the naturalifts, when Agoftino Scilla attempted to account for it by fome fpecimens in his own cuftody. This gentleman, living at Meftina, had an opportunity of fearch- ing the quarries in the neighbourhood of thofe feas, where red coral grows in abundance, and whither it might moft eafily be carried by any inundation. Accordingly he found, among a vaft quantity of white coral., fome fpecimens, which duubtlefs had once been red, and thefe, though they had, in a great meafure, loft their colour on the outfidc, yet they retained fo much of it within, as plainly mewed that they had once "been red ; and the whole truth feems to con- iift in this, that though the fubftance of the coral is per- manent, the colour is not fo j and that we, perhaps, often meet with red coral which we knew not to be fuch, becaufe of the changes it br.s-fuffered in the earth. This is a ftrong argument againft the opinion of thofe who fuppofethat the foflile corah and fhells were never truly marine bodies, but produced in the beds of ftone, &c. in which they are found ; iince it feems very clear, from the lofs of the colour of thefe foiTiie red corah, that they are in an altered ftate, and in part decaying ; and that the places where we find them contribute to their deftruftion, not to their generation, /higujlin. Scilla de Petri f ac.

That thefe have once been marine corals is alfo evident from many other things; they are not unfrequently found with the fragments of fea fhells yet adhering to them, fuch as the tuhu'.i verwicularcs, and other fuch fhells as we con- tinually find growing to them, as they grow in the fea: and about Meflina, where the foflile corah are found em- bodied in loofe mafies of ftone, not in ftrata, it is a very common thing to find the parts of the fame piece of coral

' buried in two, or more of thefe mafies of ftone, it havin been broken there, and part retained in one ftone, part i another ; the two ftones thus containing the two parts of a piece of coral are frequently found at cohfiderable di- itances from one another, yet, when they are brought to- gether, the broken pieces are found to tally cxadtly with one another. Can this be luppofed the cafe, if they were each produced feparately in the ftone, from its own pecu- liar feminal priijeiple.

Befide the great variety of corals found in their natural ftate, in the fea, we find great numbers buried in the earth, and immerfed even in the bodies of folid ftones, and mar- We; of thefe many are the fume with the fpecies now known

to us at fcai and many differ from all the known recent ones. The foflile corah are found foraetimes nearly in their own natural ftate, but much more frequently they have their pores filled up with ftony panicles, fo as to feem mere ftones. 7'hofe which are not reducible to any of the known recent fpecies, are probably the produce of leas and fhorcs yet dnfearched j but it is very remarkable, that the con>- mon red coral\ though fo frequent at fea, is fo fcarce '•in the foflile world, that there is hardly one credible account of its having ever been met with.

The fcvcral white corals, known as marine productions, are almoft all of them found alfo foflile in fome part of the world ; and, of the feveral which are lefs known, many have been honoured in their foffile ftate with peculiar names; Hill's Hift. of FofK p. 641. Sec the articles Mv-

CETITJE, PoRPITJE, TuBULARIA, PEJIUS, ASTR01T£S, Ll-

thophyta, marine Productions, &c. CQRALLINA, corall'me, in botany, the name of a genus of fea plants, the characters of which are,that they grow naturally un- der water; and are finely divided, or compofed of parts jointed into one another by regular articulations, and terminating in very fine and fmall branches. See fab. i. of Botany, daft 17, The fpecies of coralline enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe : 1. The common coralline. 2. The thick, brittle, hollow coralline. 3. The flenderer, brittle, hollow coralline. 4. The purple^ jointed corallinr. 5. The hollow cora.lin'e of Jamaica, with fhort white joints, fecming as ifitrung on threads. 6. The foft, geniculated, American coralline, with flat comprefled figments. 7. The fnialkir, EnglUh, geniculated coralline. 8. The knotty coralline, refembliug the fea dier's weed, with tubular fegments. 9, The feed- ing fea coralline, with capillaccous leaves: 10; The pro- cumbent, denticulated, molly coralline, with very flender ftalks, and oppofite jaggs. II. The alternately denticulat- ed, mofly coraline, v/itii branches divided into numerous thin filaments. 12. The mofly coralline, with oppofite den- ticulations. 13. The moffy, feathered coralline, with hook- ed branches, commonly called the fickle-feathered fea mofs,

14. The feathered, fcrupofe coralline, with thick, rigid ftalks.

15, The lobfter's horn coralline. 16. The fmall, fir-like, fea coralline. 17. The narrow-leaved, purple arailine. iS. The dufky green, Spanifh coralline, with capillaccous leaves^ and a fpungy ftalk. jg. The Spanifh coralline, with brown* capillaccous leaves. 20. The white, fea coralline, with ca- pillaceous, multifid leaves. 21. The capillaccous corallinci with black, multifid leaves. 22. The capillaceous coralline,, with green, multifid leaves. 23. The fmaileft, knitty, fea coralline. 24. The very much branched, red, capillaceous coralline. 25. The very much branched, white, capillaceous coralline. 26. The gold-coloured, capillaccous coralline, with forked leaves. 27. The pale- coloured, capillaceous, tough coral- line. 28. The fea coralline, reCmbling the tuberofe roots of trees. 29. The dodder-like, fea coralline. 30. The fea coralline, with long, fennel-like, leaves. 31. The fea coralline, with fhoiter, fennel-like leaves. 32. The abrotanum-leaved coralline. 33, The fhrubby and knotty, fouthernwood-Icaved coralline. 34. The fmaileft coralline, divided into extremely fmall, -lhort branches. 35. The capillaceous fea coralline, with the ap- pearance of the coftus Indicus. 36. The filvery, capilla- ceous coralline.

It is to be obferved, that Mr. Tournefort brings into the clafs of corallines, all thofe fea plants which terminate in fine- ly divided branches j and therefore takes in many of thofe plants which others called the fine-leaved fucus's, retaining the name coralline only to the fcrupofe or jointed kinds. The antients have faid great things of the virtues of the common coralline. Diofcorides prefcribes it for mitigating the pain of the gout, and for preventing ftagnations of the humours in any part; he fays nothing of its virtues againft worms, which are what we alone eftecm it for. We give it in powder from ten grains to a fcruple, or half a dram twice a day in thefe cafes, and that with confiderable good* effect. Geofr&y, Mat. Med. Vol. 2. p. 238.

CORALLO-ACHATES, in the natural hiftory of the anti- ent?, the name of a very beautiful fpecies of agate, found at this time in the Eaft-Indies, but not in any plenty, and called by Dr. Hdl achates miniaceus flavo variegatus, or the red lead coloured agate, variegated with yellow. Its bafis, or ground colour, is a pale, but very bright red, in which there are difcovered, on a clofe infpe<5tion, in moft of the pieces, multitudes of veins of a darker red, drawn in very fine and clofe concentric circles, round one or more points, the whole giving a mixt red, not unlike that of our red lead, or that of the common red coral in its rough ftate, when firit drawn out of the fea. It is always variegated alfo with a number of fmall and beautiful blotches of a fair yeilow, which are ranged with great irregularity in the mafs, but never interfedt, or arc interfered, by the veins ; they are all fmall, and either round or oblong. It is very hard, and. capable of a fine polifh, and, when wrought, is an extreme- ly elegant ftone. Hill's Hift. of Foff. p. 484.

CORALLODENDRON, coral-wood, in botany, the name of a genus of trees, the characters of which are thefe : the flower is of the papilionaceous kind, but of a very Angular make ;.