310 SEA-ANEMONES, ZOOPHYTES, ETC. 



be so great, or that they should enjoy so cosmo- 

 politan a distribution. There is no reason why more 

 naturalists should not cultivate the humblest as well 

 as the most highly-developed types of marine life, 

 and keep living marine diatoms, foraminiferae, nocti- 

 lucae, and sponges. Our rock-pools support them, 

 and it is a sad proof of how little we yet know of 

 the natural conditions of such little spots as these, 

 if we cannot keep them artificially alive also. 



That aquaria are still in the infancy of their deve- 

 lopment we do not doubt, any more than that they 

 will administer to the growing love of animated na- 

 ture which is the especial feature of the intellectual 

 culture of our century. Here will have to be fought 

 out and hunted down many of the embryological 

 questions to which deep philosophical inquiry is now 

 attaching such great importance. And, whilst aquaria 

 may in this manner be useful to true science, they 

 will not be less so to unscientific people, in revealing 

 to them at a glance the shapes, habits, and natures 

 of creatures they had never heard of before, so as 

 thus to form a practical education all the more 

 valuable because those- who learn are for the time 

 unaware of its importance. 

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