62 



THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1896. 



fear that an epidemic was spreading 

 through the entire range of tanks, and 

 that in a few days all the fish would be 

 lost. I had noticed that when a cod- 

 ling began to die it lost its rich colors 

 and took on a sickly brownish white 

 color, and that its death ended in a 

 quivering and spasmodic action, after 

 which it would straighten out and be- 

 come rigid. These are the exact symp- 

 toms of smothering. Yet, how could 

 these fish die of suffocation when I was 

 pouring oxygen into the water so rapidly 

 that the water was of a milky color, and 

 everything was silvery with globules of 

 air ? 



Again I determined to make another 

 examination, this time under a micro- 

 scope, and placing a minute portion of 

 a gill of one of the dead codlings under 

 the glass, I was astonished to find it 

 literally packed solid with very minute 

 marine leeches, every one of which 

 was gorged with blood taken from the 

 gills of the fish. Here was the secret ; 

 these thousands of minute parasites 

 had so packed the delicate breathing 

 apparatus of the fish that they had died 

 for want of oxygen, in other words, 

 had smothered. 



Evidently these parasites were fast 

 spreading from tank to tank ; the only 

 way to stop this was to lock up the 

 water in the affected tanks, and thus 

 stop the spreading of the parasites 

 through the entire circuit of tanks and 

 into the storage reservoirs. The few 

 codlings that still remained alive were 

 treated the same as the eels, and with 

 like good results. The locked up water 

 was filtered through a large filter, con- 

 sisting of blankets, sponge, animal 

 charcoal, and fine sand, after which it 

 was allowed to pass into the reservoirs. 

 I afterwards discovered that these para- 

 sites had been introduced into the 

 tank through the medium of twenty- 



five small Eastern lobsters that, in all 

 probability, through long confinement 

 in *' cars "* and smack wells, f had 

 become infested with parasites. All 

 these lobsters died shortly after being 

 introduced in the tank. 



THE RHUBARB. 



{Rheum.) 



To most people rhubarb is only known 

 in the form of long, sappy stems as 

 sold by our gardeners or grocers to be 

 used in our kitchens. Only few peo- 

 ple know that several species of this 

 imjiortant plant are, when proj)erly 

 cultivated, objects of great beauty. 

 Especially when rhubarb is grown as a 

 single specimen in good deep soil, on an 

 open grass plot, the enormous leaves and 

 the symmetrical habit of this plant are 

 very decorative. The writer has seen 

 single specimens of this plant on pri- 

 vate grounds and in royal and public 

 parks in middle Europe that measured 

 ten feet across, with flower stalks ten 

 to twelve feet high. 



The rhubarb, botanically known as 

 Rheum, is a native of the far East. 

 Rheum Emodi is to-day found in a 

 wild state in the Himalaya mountains, 

 at a height of 9,000 to 16,000 feet 

 above sea level. The great medicinal 

 properties, chiefly contained in the root, 

 caused its extensive cultivation. As a 

 matter of course the most profitable 

 culture is carried on in or near its native 

 home, the climate and properties of the 

 soil being most favorable. 



Ten to twelve years are required to 

 grow the root to perfection. It is then 

 as thick as a man's arm. These are 



* Perforated wooden boxes kept floating in 

 water in which professional flshennen keep 

 their fish or crabs until wanted to fill orders. 

 — Ed. 



t Apartments filled with water aboard of 

 fishing vessels. — Ed. 



