184 GLAUCUS; OR, 
to their deoxygenating the water while alive, like 
other animals, or to the fact that it is very rare to 
get a specimen of zoophyte in which a large number 
of the polypes have not been killed in the transit 
home, or at least so far knocked about, that (in the 
Anthozoa, which are far the most abundant) the 
polype—or rather living mouth, for it is little more 
—is thrown off to decay, pending the growth of a 
fresh one in the same cell. 
But all the sea-weeds, in common with other 
vegetables, perform this function continually, and 
thus niaintain the water in which they grow in a 
state fit to support animal life. 
This fact—first advanced by Priestley and Ingen- 
housz, and though doubted by the great Ellis, satis- 
factorily ascertained by Professor Daubeny, Mr. 
Ward, Dr. Johnston, and Mr. Warrington—gives an 
answer to the question, which I hope has ere now 
arisen in the minds of some of my readers,— 
How is it possible to see these wonders at home ? 
Beautiful and instructive as they may be, can they 
be meant for any but dwellers by the sea-side ? 
