Page:The Book of the Aquarium and Water Cabinet.djvu/70

60 some species lose their health in it, and at last perish. But for anemones of all kinds, many mollusks and crustaceans, and some other forms to be presently described, artificial water does well, and improves daily if properly managed. Unless, therefore, the aquarian is bent upon domesticating the rarer and more delicate sea specimens, he may avail himself of the aid of the chemist, and manufacture sea-water from the river or the pump.

Composition of Marine Salts.—The limited space of this work will not enable me to enter upon the consideration of the chemistry of this question so fully as I have done in “Rustic Adornments;” nor, perhaps, is it necessary here to do more than point out the simplest method of procedure. There are at least seven ingredients besides water, used in the natural laboratory, but the chemist dispenses with some of these, and finds every purpose served by using a selection of the chief of them. The composition of sea water is as follows:—

Mr. Gosse, in July 1854, communicated to the “Magazine of Natural History” the results of experiments in the imitation of this composition, and a formula for the