PUBLIC AQUARIA. It 
the young, but also detect the channels through which they are 
most likely to run wild. Show the child a living gasteropod, and 
then all will be clear to him; for he will see at a glance how the 
animals live and move about and eat. So much for an object- 
lesson from the pond or garden-snail. A simple one, indeed, but 
perfectly adapted to the needs, as well as to the capabilities, of a 
child. Not for a child alone, for probably not ten out of a dozen 
older persons in the city through could tell where the mouth or the 
eyes of a snail are located. 
To such persons a well-stocked aquarium would reveal almost a 
new world of wonders. Who can foresee the influence it would 
have upon the young and active minds of school children, by 
causing them to look deeply into the book of nature broadly 
opened before them, and seek, first for the strange and beautiful, 
afterwards for the origin and reason and significance of it all! 
Everyone knows how people flock to a menagerie or zodlogical 
garden when there is a curious or unfamiliar animal to be seen. 
An unwieldly hippopotamus, or an ugly, ferocious beast of any 
kind, will be sure to attract hundreds of persons. If people 
retain their interest in the wild animals after having seen them 
many times, how much more must they find to interest them 
among the varied inhabitants of the ocean ! 
To the naturalists, a large and properly conducted aquarium 
would be of great assistance. Few persons are aware of the many 
valuable scientific observations already derived from studies at 
large aquaria, to say nothing of the great amount of work now in 
progress at sea-side laboratories, which does not now concern us. 
From a scientific stand-point, public aquaria are deserving of sup- 
port. I think it was Prof. Edward Forbes who once wrote : “‘ The 
naturalist whose acquaintance is confined to preserved specimens 
in a cabinet can form but a vague idea of the glorious variety of 
Nature, of the wisdom displayed in the building up of the atoms of 
matter to be the houses of life and intellect.” 
To take another view of the matter, some allusion may be made 
to what has been accomplished in solving problems that have long 
puzzled naturalists. A very choice morsel for the palate is the 
white-bait, a small, delicate fish, about an inch in length, which is 
sold at an extravagant price in the English markets. It was long 
an undecided question among naturalists what these little fishes 
became when they attained their growth. It was supposed they 
grew into the herring, C/upea harengus, but owing to their peculiar 
habits no one could prove the relationship. Prof. Saville Kent, 
however, succeeded in keeping them alive for eighteen months in 
the Manchester aquarium, and was thus enabled to prove that the 
white-bait, Clupea alba, did develop into Clupea harengus. Such 
an observation could not have been made except under the 
