THE AQUARIUM. 687 



THE AQUAEIUM. 



By WILLIAM E. SIMMONS, Jb. 



IT is a subject for regret, as well from a national as a scientific 

 point of view, that, while London, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Na- 

 ples, Brighton, in fact nearly every European city of note, has its 

 aquarium, or aquaria. New York, the metropolis of the New World, 

 is as yet Avithout one. True, the necessity has not been overlooked; 

 but, beyond the agitation of the subject, no practical steps have, I be- 

 lieve, been taken in the matter. To the conductors of Appletons' 

 Journal belongs the honor of having first directed j)ublic attention to 

 the necessity for establishing an aquarium at Central Park, and their 

 praiseworthy efforts to that end have received, besides the very gen- 

 eral approval of the daily press, encomiums from Prof. Henry and 

 other eminent scientific men. Indeed, in the latter part of 1873, they 

 even opened the way for securing to the enterprise the valuable ser- 

 vices of Mr. W. Saville Kent, late Curator of the Brighton Aquarium. 

 Unfortunately, during the delay that has subsequently occurred in the 

 d.evelopment of the scheme, Mr. Kent has been induced to accept tlie 

 curatorship of the Manchester (England) Aquarium. 



But of what use, it may be asked, other than embellishment, is the 

 aquarium ? The scientific reader, knowing its value, will not require 

 an answer ; but, to the unscientific, it doubtless seems of small practi- 

 cal use to spend time and money in gathering together a few fish and 

 plants, that their growth and movements may be observed. The 

 answer is, first, its scientific value. Its influence would be to engen- 

 der in the thousands who would daily visit it a taste for scientific 

 knowledge and pursuits. In seeing the objects it contained, people 

 would naturally find a desire to know something of them beyond what 

 can be learned by cursory observation, and thus be led to scientific 

 reading and scientific education. Second, it constitutes a science by 

 itself, and therefore demands the same encouragement that is given 

 to any other one science. It is not yet half a century since Madame 

 Jeannette Power began the study of marine animals, by the aid of 

 glass cases filled with water, in which she confined them ; still almost 

 our entire knowledge of aquatic zoology having been obtained through 

 the aquarium rests upon it. A striking result, recently obtained, is at 

 least a partial settlement of the vexed question whether fish hear; 

 the observations of Mr. Henry Lee on that subject, in the Brighton 

 Aquarium, having determined that some fish certainly do hear. 



In addition to these very cogent reasons is the fact that the aqua- 

 rium is a never-failing source of interest. The objects it presents are, 

 many of them, entirely new to human sight, and not a few are won- 

 derfully beautiful. So great is the attraction of the aquarium, that, 



