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Aquarist Versus Aquarian 



IDA M. MELLEN 



Secretary), Ne\\! York Public Aquarium 



What is the correct title for a person 

 who understands the management of 

 aquaria ? For some years this has been 

 a vexed question. Aquarian, Aquarium- 

 keeper, Aquarist, and other names have 

 been given. A similar difficulty accom- 

 panied the selection of a word to describe 

 a receptacle or building containing live 

 aquatic plants and animals, aquavivariwn 

 and other names having been used before 

 aquarium was finally settled upon. 



The euphonius and unique name of 

 "Aquarial Garden" was bestowed upon 

 an aquarium opened in Boston in i860. 

 Professor E. S. Morse, President of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History, 

 thinks it may have been suggested by 

 Agassiz, who was greatly interested in 

 the institution. The Leisure Hour of 

 1864 states that Agassiz "may frequently 

 be seen walking towards the Boston 

 Aquarial Gardens." As the histories and 

 guide-books of Boston covering that 

 period tell very little about the opening 

 of the Aquarial Garden, it is interesting 

 to learn from Professor Morse that the 

 exhibition consisted of "individual 

 aquaria round the hall, and in the centre 

 a huge tank, in which seals, a shark and 

 other animals were displayed. After- 

 wards a group of Africans, Zulus, Hot- 

 tentots and other negroes danced and 

 sang on the stage." 



Such awkward words as aqua-vivarium 

 and aquarium-keeper are not likely to 

 become popular. A book in our Aquarium 

 library, published sixty years ago in 

 London, is entitled The Aquarian Natur- 

 alist. This is typically English. From 



old American dictionaries we learn that 

 Aquarians were members of an heretical 

 Christian sect that flourished about the 

 middle of the eighteenth century and 

 were so called because they used only 

 water at the Lord's Supper. Murray's 

 English Dictionary, at present the stand- 

 ard dictionary in England, gives this defi- 

 nition, and also defines Aquarian as "One 

 who keeps an aquarium." It also states 

 that the word has been used, though 

 rarely, as an adjective, an article in the 

 Intellectual. Observer for 1865 being en- 

 titled "Aquarian Principles." 



The word Aquarist was adopted some 

 years ago by the New York Aquarium. 

 In perfectly correct form, probably, it 

 should be Aquariist; but the contraction 

 is preferable. The publishers of the 

 Century Encyclopedia, conferring with 

 the officers of the Aquarium on the sub- 

 ject several years ago, stated that in view 

 of our adoption of the word, its usage 

 would be regarded as established, and 

 they purposed inserting it in the next 

 issue of their encyclopedia. This has not 

 yet been printed. 



Mr. W. A. Poyser, editor of Aquatic 

 Life;, revived the word Aquarian in 1916, 

 and has since used it in his magazine, 

 though he also uses Aquarist. 



Mr. Poyser advised the writer last 

 summer that he had received intelligence 

 of the formation of an astrological society 

 in Boston for the purpose of studying 

 mental, moral and physical effects of 

 planets on human beings. As the world 

 was passing through the portion of the 

 universe dominated by the sign Aquarius, 



