262 
THE NATURAL HISTORY 
[LETT 
LETTER XCVIII.i 
TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRING TON. 
When I happen to visit a family where gold and silver fishes 
are kept in a glass bowl, I am always pleased with the occurrence, 
because it offers me an opportunity of observing the actions and 
propensities of those beings with whom I can be little acquainted 
in their natural state. Not long since I spent a fortnight at the 
house of a friend where there was such a vivarium, to which I 
paid no small attention, taking every occasion to remark what 
passed within its narrow limits. It was here that I first ob- 
served the manner in which fishes die. As soon as the creature 
sickens, the head sinks lower and lower, and it stands as it were 
on its head ; till, getting weaker, and losing all poise, the tail 
turns over, and at last it floats on the surface of the water with 
its belly uppermost. Tlie reason why fishes, when dead, swim 
in that manner is very obvious ; because, when the body is no 
longer balanced by the fins of the belly, the broad muscular back 
preponderates by its own gravity, and turns the belly upper- 
most, as lighter from its being a cavity, and because it contains 
the swimming-bladders, which contribute to render it buoyant. 
Some that delight in gold and silver fishes have adopted a notion 
that they need no aliment. True it is that they will subsist for 
a long time without any apparent food but what they can collect 
from pure water frequently changed ; yet they must draw some 
support from animalcula, and other nourishment supplied by 
the water ; because, though they seem to eat nothing, yet the 
consequences of eating often drop from them. That they are best 
^ First published in the Gentlemaits Magazine for 1786, under the 
signature V. 
