144 



NATURE 



[Dec. 20, 1877 



I hope, also, it may succeed as a sort of living museum, with- 

 out any of the kind of attractions which are not biological ones, 

 and which, indeed, are not scientific in any sense, as common 

 and ribald music, theatricals, acrobatic and jugglery performances, 

 and so forth. Only, no aquarium has ever permanently thriven 

 without these things, 



I greatly doubt whether anyone yet possesses the requisite 

 knowledge to be able to rear any marine crustacean from the egg 

 state to an adult condition, and to feed it in captivity in such 

 manner as to be able to sell it in the open market at rates below 

 those sold under present circumstances. Yet this is put forward, 

 conspicuously, as one of the aims of the scheme. In Britain are 

 eaten as human food about a dozen species of crabs, lobsters, 

 prawns, and shrimps, and most of these have been occasionally 

 bred in aquaria as far as the Zoea state, when they are free 

 swimmers, and they then generally die. Rarely, some few have 

 been brought up to a higher stage, but I know of no instance, 

 during twenty-five years of experience, where any marine crus- 

 tacean of any kind has been reared to an adult condition in an 

 aquarium. And if such a thing could be done, I believe that to 

 feed them in any state of captivity, with animal food, which they 

 require in great abundance and variety, and which must be 

 purchased, would be very expensive, indeed, far too costly I 

 think, to be practically and commercially remunerative, 



I am glad to see that in last week's Nature, vol. xvii. p. 133, 

 it is stated that that excellently-tasted httle fre^h-water lobster, 

 Astacus, has been bred artificially by a Piscicultural Institution 

 at Schwerin. If so, why should it not be similarly bred in 

 Britain, where it is much seldomer eaten than in France and 

 Germany. In Berlin, Hamburg, and Dresden, I have often 

 purchased it at sixpence a Hozen, while in Paris I have given as 

 much as sixpence each for it. I' is a pi'y. however, that the 

 Schwerin account is not more full and explicit. It is stated that 

 in the spring of 1876, 700 Astacus in e^g, were placed in two 

 roundjponds, each of six feet diameter, H oles were made in 

 these, and recently, on draining the ponds, only three or four 

 adult crayfish were found straying about the ponds, the rest each 

 being in a separate hole, and a large number of young ones were 

 found, as big as bees, and very lively. What size were the 

 crayfish at birth, and if very small, and swimming, how were 

 they prevented from escaping from the ponds ? Information is 

 wanted as to the shape, length, breadth, direction as to angle, 

 and distance apart of these holes, and their position in the 

 ponds, whether in the sides or ba^e, or both. If nearly 700 

 animals occupied as many holes, where were the young ones ? 

 How many young were there? If each female had only as few 

 as 100 eegs hatched out, then 70,700 must have been the popu- 

 lation of these two little pools. When, and in what manner, 

 were the males introduced ? We require also to be told of the 

 material of which the ponds were constructed, and if the sides 

 were upright, and the bottoms flat, or if rounded or basin-shaped. 

 If water ran in and out, how much in a named time, of what 

 quality, as to foreign substances it contained in solution and 

 suspension, and what was its temperature at various periods of 

 the year? In what direcion and in what amount was light 

 admitted ? How much vegetation, and of what kinds, grew in 

 the ponds? What kinds of animal food was given them, and 

 how much and often, and was it cooked or raw ? Carrots appear 

 an odd food for crayfish. Let all these things and more, be 

 carefully ascertained, to see if they can be applied to the culture 

 of ffomarus, the near marine relative of Astacus, before much 

 money is spent. 



It would be an excellent thing for students to have a place to 

 study at, such as is proposed to be provided for them at Jersey, 

 and similar to the zoological station and aquarium at Naples, in the 

 arrangement of which I had much to do. But would students be 

 content to go only so far as Jersey ? Is not the access too easy, 

 and too cheap, as it is not easy or cheap to go so far as Naples, 

 and to have the name of so going ? I have often thought it odd, 

 and evincing not at all a really zealous spirit in my own direction 

 on the part of my fellow-naturalists, that such a thing should be, 

 that though the Crystal Palace Aquarium has existed for seven 

 years within less than one hour's railway ride from London, and 

 though it contains a constantly advertised collection of living 

 marine animals exceeded in variety and interest by none in 

 Britain, or even Europe, yet no scientific man, except the 

 late Edward Newman, has ever applied for permission to 

 carry on any course of inquiry here on any subject, continuously 

 or occasionally, connected with the habits of living creatures, 

 in the spirit of say, Gilbert White of Selbome. Yet we ofifer 



all such advantages as table-space, good light, and the use 

 of any animals in our tanks not having a considerable money 

 value — lest injury be done to such specimens — absolutely free of 

 all charges. At this moment we possess many Italian animals 

 in our collection, as fishes, crustaceans, moUusks, zoophytes, &c., 

 which can be seen aKve nowhere else, save on the shores of the 

 Mediterranean, and yet no professed zoologist known to me ever 

 comes to see them, or takes the smallest interest in them. They 

 are therefore beheld only by the general public, who only look at 

 them for their mere prettiness, or for what untrained observers are 

 complacently pleased to term "ugliness." No student ever asks 

 us for more than any dead animals we may chance to have, and 

 which we give away gratis, and these apparently afford far more 

 pleasure than the sight of living specimens. It is not at all 

 uncommon to meet with biologists who openly and avowedly 

 proclaim their contempt for collections of living animals in aquaria, 

 which they regard as being "well enough for women and children," 

 but for men they say there is nothing like seeing such animals in 

 rows of glass jars of alcohol on the shelves of a museum. My 

 last contribution of any length to Nature was made so long 

 ago as October 12, 1871, when I gave a description of the Crystal 

 Palace Aquarium, then only just opened. Since then we have 

 had no cause to complain of the appreciation of the world of 

 sightseers. But as regards the indifference of ihe scientific 

 world, that has been and is so great that the place mi^ht never 

 have existed. William Yarrell, the British ichthyologist of the 

 generation just passed away, used to tell me how glad he would 

 be to see a live John Dory {Zeus faber), and how much he would 

 give to behold one swimming. But here, at Sydenham, this fish 

 can be seen alive and in perfect health for months together, in 

 crystalline sea-water. Yet no Yarrell ever comes to s^e them. 

 Are there no Yarrells, and Whites, and Watertons, and Newmans 

 now? or has their very spirit passed away into the region of 

 apathy where the affectation of caring for nothing, and of being 

 never moved to zeal in anything, in this observation of live 

 animals, seems to be regarded as a very high accomplishment ? 



W. A. X,(.OYD 

 Crystal Palace Aquarium, December 15 



The "Challenger" Estimates' of the Volume of the Gulf 

 Stream 



In the interesting " Voyage of the Challenger,''^ just published, 

 Sir Wyville Thomson states (vol i, p 371) " thai the Gulf Stream 

 in its restricted sense was, early in May, 1873, at the point where 

 we crossed it and made our observation-, about sixty miles in width, 

 100 fathoms deep, and its rate three knots an hour." I was 

 much surprised at reading this, as the Admiralty Report on 

 Ocean Soundings, No. 7, p. 12, estimates it at the same point 

 as " 100 fathoms deep, and running at the rate of three miles an 

 houry2?r a -width of fifteen miles, discharging four and a half cubic 

 miles of heated water per hour." 



As no reference is made by Sir Wyville Thomson to the extra- 

 ordinary discrepancy in these two est mates of the same thing at 

 the same time — one being four times the volume of the other — 

 and as he says he makes the statement "thus guardedly" I 

 think, in the interest of scientifie accuracy, an explanation is 

 required, T. Mellard ReaDE 



Liverpool, December 8 



The Fossil Peronospora as a Primordial Plant 



The concluding sentence of your notice (vol. xvii, p. 128) of 

 my observations on a fossil fungus is so important, that I shall 

 be glad of a word of reply. You say, "But should not this 

 primordial plant have led a non-parasitic life ? for if parasitical, 

 then this fact points to some pre-existing plant." 



Although the specimen I have figured is $hown as growing 

 within the decayed tissues of a Lepidodendron, yet it does not 

 follow that the same fungus could not perfect itself on humus 

 alone. Recent species of Peronospora show a tendency to grow 

 upon the ground, as several species, including the fungus of the 

 potato disease, will grow and produce fruit on the naked earth, 

 A truly terrestrial species is found in the allied Botrytis terrestris, 

 Persoon, and many of the Mucedines grow freely in cellars, on 

 damp walls, or in any moist place, < 



WORTHINGTON G. SMITH 



15, Mildmay Grove, N, 



