5693 The Aquarium. 



as very erroneous ideas had been promulgated on the subject, and 

 instructions given in several most engaging publications which might 

 tend materially to mislead and disappoint those inclined to recreate 

 themselves with this interesting subject. 



HISTORY. 



After a short sketch of the several discoveries in the various 

 branches of Science embraced in this subject (as the experiments of 

 Lower, Thurston, Hooke and Mayo, on respiration and animal heat; 

 the presence of air in water, and its necessity for supporting the life 

 offish, by the Hon. Robert Boyle; the discovery of fixed air, car- 

 bonic acid, by Dr. Black, and its production in respiration ; the ex- 

 periments of Priestley, Ingenhousz and Sennebier, on the action of 

 submersed aquatic vegetation, exposed to light, in removing car- 

 bonic acid, and restoring oxygen to the air dissolved in water; all of 

 which had been since substantiated by numerous experimenters), 

 a cursory review was given of the common employment of the ordi- 

 nary fish globe, the cisterns, tanks, pans and tubs, with their fish and 

 water plants, to be seen every day in our conservatories and green- 

 houses, and the glass cylinders used by almost every microscopist for 

 preserving Chara, Nitella, Vallisneria, and other like plants, in which 

 the circulation of the sap was visible, as also for propagating Rotifers, 

 Stentors, and other microscopic animalcules ; the consideration of 

 which points brought the subject up to modern times. Mr. Waring- 

 ton then proceeded to give an account of his own experiments, and 

 the reasons which had led to their commencement, namely, the state- 

 ments made for a series of years in our works on chemistry,* that 

 growing vegetation would counterbalance the vital functions of fish. 

 To test the truth of this and its permanence, f a large twelve-gallon 

 receiver was filled to about two-thirds its capacity with river water, 

 and some clean washed sand and gravel, with several large frag- 

 ments of rock- work placed in it, the latter so arranged as to afford 

 shelter to the fish from the sun's rays. A good healthy plant of Val- 

 lisneria spiralis was then transplanted, and as soon as it had recovered 

 from this operation a pair of gold fish were introduced. The mate- 

 rials being thus arranged, all appeared to progress healthily for a short 

 time, until circumstances occurred which indicated that another and 

 very material agent was required to perfect the adjustment and ren- j 



* Brande's ' Elements of Chemistry,' 1821, and repeated up to the present time. 

 f 'Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society,' 1850, Vol. iii. p. 52. 





