206 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



of the sea-anemones often affords a spectacle of marvellous 

 beauty. 



In my undergraduate days it was the custom to keep aquaria 

 in our rooms and in them to establish all the forms we could 

 contrive to make live there. He was the smartest fellow who 

 had the greatest number of species in the cubic foot or two of 

 water the vessel contained. To do the work well means that 

 we had frequently to pack fresh sea-water from the Charles 

 River at the proper stage of the tide, and also to rig up some 

 contrivance for aerating the water ; much time and originality 

 were spent on such devices. In these days, when some kind of 

 histology is the aim of the naturalist, the aquarium has passed 

 out of use. I have not seen one in a student's room in thirty 

 years. They know much more of structure, but far less of life 

 than in my student days. 



