THE AQUAPIUM. 



trivance may be made highly ornamental for the study, or even the drawing room. 

 Philip Henry Gosse, a naturalist, has issued in London a beautiful duodecimo 

 volume with highly ornamental plates, from which our wood cut is selected of 



This glass case enables 

 - -^ A-^. ^^^ the possessor to study the 



':,. , ^ habits of marine animals, 



to carefully note their 

 ^^^r^-^ various actions, and their 

 ^ " ■ - A behavior under different 

 circumstances. A result 

 often most curious and 

 unexpected has rewarded 

 the student. The most 

 interesting parts, by far, 

 of natural history, are 

 those minute but most 

 graphic particulars, which 

 have been gathered by an 

 attentive watching of in- 

 dividual animals; witness 

 Wilson's picture of the 

 mocking-bird; Godman's 

 of the insects in a small 

 pool ; Vigors' of the Tou- 

 can; Broderip's of the 

 Beaver '<Binney;" WoL- 

 laston's of the water- 

 shrew ; Bennet's of the 

 bird of Paradise; and 

 multitudes of others. 



The inhabitants of the 

 deep sea have hitherto 



THE fountain AQUARIUM. 



been almost inaccessible to such obsei*vation, which must, after all, be the foundation 

 of all correct generalization. The Marine Aquarium bids fair to supply the required 

 opportunities of study, and to make us acquainted with the strange creatures of the 

 sea, without diving to gaze on them. 



The idea of maintaining the balance between animal and vegetable life on chemi- 

 cal principles is not so novel as was at first supposed. Priestly first advanced the 

 opinion that plants, in certain circumstances, emitted oxygen gas; and Ingenhousz 

 soon after discovered that the leaves of plants, when immersed in water and exposed 

 to the light of day, produced an air which he announced as oxygen gas. Professor 

 Daubeney in 1833 elucidated the subject. He regarded light as operating upon th 

 green parts of plants as a specific stimulus, calling into action and keeping 



