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Letter — from Sir F. A. Nicholson, k.c.i.e., I,C,S., Honorary 



Director, Madras Fisheries. 

 Dated — Madras, the 3yst May 1911. 



I have the lionour to request that Government will 

 be pleased to consider the following letter when deciding 

 upon the plan, etc., of the new aquarium at Madras. 

 My letter is almost entirely based on suggestions 

 made to me by Mr. Hornell as Marine Assistant to 

 " Fisheries ", and discussed together both in person and 

 by letter ; as expert member of the Aquarium Committee 

 Mr. Hornell drew up the general plans and sugges- 

 tions for the new aquarium, and in so doing proposed 

 that with the living exhibition should be combined a 

 place of study and education, and a proper home 

 for the Fisheries Department. I append copies from 

 Mr. Hornell's letters. 



2. I suggest {a) that the new aquarium should not 

 be merely a show place, for recreation or for the satis- 

 faction of curiosity even though intelligent, but that 

 it should be (i) scientific, (2) educational, {3) practical ; 

 {b) that the direct association of " Fisheries " with the 

 aquarium will be for the financial, administrative and 

 practical benefit of both. 



3. A modern aquarium is as much a marine biologi- 

 cal station as a mere place for the exhibition, however 

 interesting, of the wonders of the deep ; it is now usual 

 to combine both purposes. The Naples Aquarium is, of 

 course, the standing and finest example of such a combi- 

 nation, and for forty years has been the resort on the one 

 hand of the tourist and general visitor, on the other of the 

 student and savant, while its specimens have gone all 

 over the world. This is similarly the case with the 

 Aquaria of the United States, their latest being under 

 development in the Philippines ; so also at Plymouth 

 in England, Monaco, etc. The New York Aquarium, 

 already second in the world, is to be developed on both 

 sides at an expense running into millions of dollars. 

 I therefore presume that when undertaking the expense 

 of a large new aquarium, Madras will not neglect 

 the practically universal example of other countries, 

 specially under the considerations which follow. 



4. Scientific. — There is no marine biological station, 

 as distinguished from museums, between Naples and 

 Japan except perhaps a small station for special purposes 



