80 JOURNAL OF THE [july, 



which let us make a short extract. Having spoken of an " in- 

 tense sympathy " with the little creature, this is added: 



" Alas, there was now too much ground for sympathy, — a ter- 

 rible malady had begun to take hold of the poor thing. The face 

 took on a comical aspect. On each side rose a swelling as if 

 she had the mumps. With a hand-lens I found that these were 

 blisters, white vesicles, and so buoyant as to annoy her by pro- 

 ducing eccentric movements. I contrived to pierce them with a 

 needle, and so to let out the confined gas. This gave immediate 

 relief. But they came again, and by and by my surgery did not 

 avail. They increased, and the buoyancy would raise it to the 

 surface, and the little sufferer despite all help would float. And 

 so it was on the last day of February at an early hour I found 

 poor Hippie afloat on her beam ends and dead. I had her alive 

 just four months." 



I was much surprised at this appearance of a severe skin 

 disease, which extended over the entire body. It seemed to me 

 a malignant scurvy. The strange thing was the presence of those 

 white vesicles, or blisters, which actually raised it so high that it 

 would float on its side at the surface, making it impossible for 

 the fish to sink. A puncture of each blister with a needle would 

 relieve the sufferer, which at once would descend in the water. 

 The error into which I fell is now apparent. I supposed that 

 the fish was ailing from an internal source, such as a blood dis- 

 ease. I am now certain that had I used the microscope upon a 

 scraping from the skin, the cause would have proved to be ex- 

 ternal, in fact, parasites, as with my fishes in the fresh water 

 aquarium. But in their case the fungus could be seen as a floc- 

 culent mold. The matter on this Hippocampus could not be 

 divined by the unaided eye. At its death, I observed that under 

 each vesicle was a spot of effused, or extravasated blood, and so 

 the hypothesis was docketed in memory of a scorbutic affection. 



In the autumn of 1889, I was the fortunate possessor of four 

 living female Sea Horses ; I was resolved to do my very utmost 

 to make life possible and pleasant for my new pets. But these 

 quaint creatures are to the utmost dainty and particular. One 

 cannot feed them as he does other fishes. Their tubular mouths 

 take in the invisible organisms of the water; in a word their food 

 is microscopic. So for their sole occupancy, I started three small 



