102 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[August 10, 1872. 
through stand-pipes when it reaches a certain level. 
Oulside the building, terrace promenades are con 
structed over the corridors; these are decorated with 
dowers, ferns and shrubs, and are reached by flights of 
stone steps from various parts of the building. 
As to the specimens themselves, it is too soon to 
say much, since here it is necessary to reverse Mrs. 
Glass’s celebrated maxim,—first catch your hare,— 
for, as in tliis case, the fish are not caught to be 
cooked, it is necessary to provide a suitable domicile 
before catching the fish. The collection, therefore, 
will be one that will require time to bring to perfec¬ 
tion. But among the specimens at present in it are 
many of great interest. In the tanks will be found 
a large angel-fish or monk-fisli ( Squatina Angelus ); 
a scad or, as it is sometimes called, a “horse mac¬ 
kerel” ( Caranx trachurus), from a fancied resem¬ 
blance to the resplendent colours of the ordinary 
mackerel ( Scomber vulgaris) ; the grey mullet {Mug'll 
sj).), with its long cylindrical body, the surmullet 
(M.surmuletus), and the red mullet {Mullusbarbatus), 
all of them delicacies of the table and much esteemed 
by the Romans, who feasted their eyes on the dying 
colours of the latter before feasting on its body; 
the hungry whiting {Meritingus vulgaris) and its 
black brother, the coal-fish (If. carbonarius); a 
pouting bream; curious-looldng “picked” dog¬ 
fishes ( Acanthi as vulgaris ), belonging to the shark 
family, each with a poisonous “ pick ” or spike in 
front of its dorsal fins; wrasse; rocldings ; two or 
three species of the brilliantly coloured but odd¬ 
looking gurnards or pipers (Trigla sp.), owing their 
name to the curious sound they sometimes emit; 
that delight of the Cornishman, the pilchard ; basse, 
or sea-dace {Labrax lupus) whose voracity gained for 
them the name of “wolf” from the Romans; vari¬ 
ous long slender pipe-fishes, the male of which have 
the credit of acting as wet-nurses, carrying the eggs 
laid by the female in a kind of pouch in the belly 
until the birth of the infant fry; and a sixteen-spined 
stickleback. Besides these, there are lobsters, craw¬ 
fishes, crabs, prawns, shrimps, etc., too numerous to 
mention. We may remark that a description by Mr. 
Warington,* of the habits of the stickleback,—re¬ 
ward of many a city arab’s piscatorial excursion,— 
and his account, of the building of its nest and the 
care, it takes of its young, gives such a glimpse of 
the interest to be found in an aquarium that we 
regret space will not allow of its quotation. 
In the table tanks are the anemones, the flora of 
the.sea, and some very handsome specimens of the 
curious and beautiful “ dead men’s fingers ” {Alcuo- 
niurn digitatum). Here, too, are the blennies, a 
common variety of which is reputed to act as a tide 
indicator, by, if possible, throwing itself out of water 
at the time of low water, and regaining its element 
when the tide rises; also two turtles from the Isle of 
Ascension, young lobsters, and the latter beiim 
certainly among the earliest, if not the cleverest 
adepts at corking and capping serpulie. 
The successful carrying out of experiments like 
the Sydenham and Brighton aquaria must tend 
to promote a taste for such studies; and, ?s some¬ 
times a marine aquarium may be desiderated at an 
inconvenient distance from the sea, a knowledge of a 
ready method of producing artificial sea-water will 
probably be of service to some of our readers. We, 
therefore, conclude our notice b} T extracting a recipe 
* Ann. Nat, His. [2] x. 273, and xvi. 330. 
furnished by P. H. Gosse, F.R.S.,* for a compound 
which he has successfully used for the purpose:— 
Chloride of Sodium. 3^ oz. 
Sulphate of Magnesia. a oz. 
Chloride of Magnesium .... 200 grs. Trov. 
Chloride of Potassium. 40 grs. „ " 
To these salts, thrown into a jar, a little less than 
four quarts of (New River) water was added, so that 
the solution was brought to a density of about 1026. 
This formula is based upon an analysis of the Chan¬ 
nel seawater, by Schweitzer, bromide of magne¬ 
sium, sulphate of lime and carbonate of lime being 
omitted, because of the minute quantity required. 
It was criticized by Mr. Warington a few months 
after its original publication ;f but, as Mr. Gosse has 
since republished it in his ‘ Handbook to the Marine 
Aquarium,’ we may presume that he has found it 
satisfactory. 
THE MICROSCOPE IN PHARMACY. 
BY HENRY rOCXLIXGTON. 
{Continued from page 83.) 
Veratri Viridis Radix.— The rhizome of Vera- 
trum viride will not detain us long, as it is interest¬ 
ing to the micro-botanist rather than to the micro¬ 
pharmacist, and not specially interesting to him. The 
type of structure is strictly that of ordinary rhizomes. 
The vascular system is composed of simple pitted 
vessels and unpitted wood fibres, and its distribution, 
being necessarily determined by the rootlets, is too 
varied to permit description. The vessels are small, 
the pits are long and transversal. The walls of the 
vessels are little thickened, and they are usually 
little, if at all, coloured. When coloured it is by 
transfusion from the accompanying latic-iferous 
vessels. The parenchymous cells are of consider¬ 
able size with firm walls in the rhizome, with very 
thin walls and spongy consistence in the root 
fibres, and contain great quantities of an amorphous 
starch. Under a low-angled quarter but slight 
evidences of granulation are apparent, and the use 
of iodine is needful to satisfactorily demonstrate the 
presence of starch. Some of these cells appear to 
contain a dextrinous matter. The other cell con¬ 
tents of importance are true raphides (acicular), and 
a dark brown colouring matter which is present in 
the laticiferous vessels. The raphides are contained 
in special cells, and are very much more common in 
the rhizome than in the rootlets. Sections stained 
first with iodine and then with a dilute solution of 
magenta, form very interesting and instructive 
objects, but the persistence of the staining cannot be 
relied on. When thus treated, the starch-bearing 
cells are stained the blue-violet peculiar to iodide of 
starch, the vascular vessels and secondary deposits 
are stained a brilliant magenta red, and the bioplasm 
in certain other cells is also stained, so that the 
various structural elements are well demonstrated. 
The cells of the cuticle are stained naturally a deep 
brown, and appear to resist the action of the 
magenta. They possess no feature of interest. 
Aconiti Radix.— This root does not come into 
commerce in any adulterable form where the use of 
*Ann. Nat. Hist. [2J xiv. 66. 
f Ann. Nat. Hist. [2J xiv. 419. 
