1884.1 
Scientific Nomenclature. 215 
for brevity in language (a laudable feature !) for once carried 
the day against his love for classical precision, and Aquarium 
became the accepted term. 
But now came the misfortune. Such a receptacle was 
found to have its entertaining as well as its instructive 
phase. The smalt Aquarium, from an appliance for the 
laboratory became an ornament for the drawing-room or the 
boudoir. The large Aquarium was seized on by speculative 
individuals or companies as an “ attraction,” and, in con- 
junaion with other “ attraaions,” was worked up into 
totalities differing very little from music-halls or “ palaces 
of pleasure.” 
The typical English aquarium is no place for study, save 
that of human frailty; its fishes are chiefly of the order 
familiarly known as “ loose,” and its water is mainly, for 
internal consumption, qualified with alcohol. Promenade 
concerts, dances (I believe), and the feats of jugglers are 
offered in place of facilities for observation and experiment. 
In short the term has undergone a transformation as signal 
as did the word “ bagnio.” 
Now I do not presume to dictate what should be the pur- 
suits of my neighbours. But there is, I submit, good cause 
to complain if amusements of such a nature are carried on 
in places nominally at least devoted to Science. It is not 
well that one and the same name should be applied to such 
establishments as that of Professor Dohrn at Naples, or 
that at Watson’s Bay in New South Wales, on the one 
hand, and the present English aquariums, on the other. 
We may, indeed, call the original unpolluted Aquarium a 
“ Marine Zoological Station,” or some such cumbrous name. 
But we want a brief compact word. Can none of our neoio- 
gists coin a suitable term ? 
