LACAZE-DIJTHIEES ON CORAL. 361 



ing teclinical terms — a necessary evil, undoubtedly, in many cases, 

 especially when describing the varied organization of invertebrate 

 animals, but one tliat Has also a strong tendency to become fashion- 

 able. His substitution of sarcosome for poli/pieroide, as used by 

 Milne-Edwards to designate the fleshy part of the coral, has cer- 

 tainly the great merit of significance, and, moreover, gets rid of one 

 of the many derivatives of the radical word polype. 



The Mediterranean is the special stronghold of Corallium rubrmn, 

 A considerable quantity is procured from the coasts of Spain, Trance, 

 and Italy, but the finest and best-grown specimens appear to be 

 obtained from the immediate neighbourhood of Algeria. M. Lacaze- 

 Duthiers accordingly posted himself at La Calle, one of the principal 

 fishing stations on that coast, and there he remained for several 

 months before he succeeded in obtaining suitable specimens for ex- 

 amination. He speaks in detail of the various difficulties he met with 

 from the ignorance and suspicion of the fishermen, of their broken 

 promises and worthless specimens, and finally of the objection he 

 himself felt to goiug out in the fishing boats, when the period of 

 their return depended mainly on their success in the fishery. No 

 doubt many in this country will sympathize with the author, and can 

 also explain to him that most of the difficulties he encountered were 

 those usually attending the demand for deep-sea animals when 

 ordinary fishermen are the only channel for procuring them. At 

 last, however, his official position carried him through — a position 

 that, it might have been expected, would have smoothed his path 

 from the first, and prevented his losing so much time in waiting on 

 the caprices and prejudices of the fishermen. The aquarium now 

 did him good service, and his situation in a latitude where the tem- 

 perature makes some approach to that of the tropics furnished him 

 with some hitherto rare experience of the difficulties attending the 

 proper regulation of light and heat in the management of marine 

 animals in captivity. The author, however, appears to have ignored 

 the great principle of the aquarium, and we find no indication of his 

 acquaintance with the magic influence of vegetation in decomposing 

 the fatal carbonic acid gas and restoring the oxygen so essential to 

 animal life. He speaks of " regularly emptying the glasses for the 

 purpose of cleaning them and changing the water," a practice alike 

 undesirable and unnecessary. The disadvantage of thus periodically 

 exposing the coral to the atmosphere ultimately induced him to 

 arrange a system of pipes by which the new water was gradually cir- 



