The Zoologist— September, 1873. 3663 



for this pm-pose. * * * * The most valuable plant of all for our 

 purpose is the sea-lettuce."—' The Aquarium; pp. 21 to 28 iuclusive. 



We must eliminate all this advice and much more which will be 

 found throughout Chapter II. of ' The Aquarium'; we must make 

 a bundle of the collecting-basket, the two strong hammers, the two 

 cold chisels, the two wide-mouthed stone jars, the one glass ditto, 

 and all the paraphernalia of sea-weed collecting, and all aquarium 

 books and aquarium advice, and all aquarium poetry and romance, 

 if we would utilize the aquarium and make it a source of improve- 

 ment and instruction. 



ii. The Lecture on Taste.— Mr. Lloyd has, I think, gone rather 

 out of his way in his lecture on taste : we have become familiar with 

 Mr. Ruskin's idea of imitation ; he condemns everything that is not 

 real, not bondjide; a mantelpiece painted to imitate marble is one 

 of his familiar examples; and thus Mr. Lloyd condemns the intro- 

 duction of imitation cromlechs, imitation grottoes and imitation 

 arches beneath the surface of the water. This section of aquarian 

 literature admits great latitude of opinion, and I am quite willing 

 to allow ornamentation to take its course; all attempts to restrain 

 or direct it must seem rather pragmatical to those who think 

 differently, and will certainly be unavailing. 



iii. Tlie Crotchet on Lung -breathing. —My friend introduces a 

 broad distinction between animals that breathe in the sea by means 

 of lungs and by means of gills; and would forbid us to keep por- 

 poises, because their respiratory organs differ from those of sharks. 

 No such restriction as this is rational : a porpoise or dolphin is as 

 legitimate an object for the aquarium as a dog-fish or a skate ; 

 I would even introduce a spermaceti whale, did not his magnitude' 

 and muscular powers suggest certain difiiculties both to his transit 

 and to his captivity. I hope Mr. Lloyd will abandon this crotchet, 

 and will exhibit a school of porpoises careering in his tank as soon 

 as the Company can afford one sufficiently capacious. 



Eliminating these three crotchets: the' transplanting, because 

 false m principle and impossible in practice; taste, because its 

 laws are not to be defined and dismissed in this offhand manner; 

 and the rejection of lung-breathers, because their presence w^ould 

 greatly enhance the interest of an aquarium, and because Nature, who 

 knows so much better than ourselves, admits them in abundance, 

 associating lung-breathers and gill-breathers, making them mutually 

 dependent, and we must not expect to improvize a better form oj 



