440 APPENDIX. 



whicli proceeds from the water, especially when it is dis- 

 turbed, and in the feebleness, disease, and final death of 

 the animals. 



In this difficulty chemistry came to my aid. Professor 

 Schonbein had proved that phosphorus possesses the 

 curious property of causing water and hydrogen to unite so 

 as to form a new compound, the peroxide of oxygen, which 

 he calls ozone ; and that ozone then immediately re-acts 

 upon the phosphorus, and oxidates it, producing the pecu- 

 liar light called phosphorescence. In like manner he had 

 suggested that the luminosity of the sea is dependent on 

 the particles of organic matter being brought into contact 

 with the atmosphere. The phosphorus of this organic 

 matter causes the union of the atmospheric oxygen with 

 the water so as to form ozone, which immediately oxidates 

 and destroys it. 



What then is necessary but the presentation of the 

 water, so charged with organic matter, to the atmosphere 

 in a minutely divided state ? This I did, and found the 

 objectionable qualities of the water at once removed, and 

 my difficulties vanished. I even took sea- water, contain- 

 ing animal matter in suspension, so putrescent as to be 

 highly offensive, and after passing it through the air in a 

 slender stream a few times successively, the water was 

 restored to purity. 



Another advantage is secured by the same process, 

 viz. the aeration of the water. For though the requisite 

 oxygen may be supplied by the agency of the plants alone, 

 the mechanical admixture of the atmospheric air with the 

 water by artificial aeration is highly conducive to the 

 health and comfort of the animals, as is evident from 

 their vigour and increased action under its stimulus. 



Should any of my readers wish to see these experiments 

 in operation, or to cultivate a personal acquaintance with 

 many of the individual specimens whose history has been 



