Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/33

8 the coralline is growing, and apparently has lost none of its vitality; but the animals have sensibly decreased in numbers, though many of them continue to be active, and shew no dislike to their situation. What can be more conclusive? I need not say that if any animal, or even a sponge, had been so confined, the water would long before this time have been deprived of its oxygen, would have become corrupt and ammoniacal, and poisonous to the life of every living thing."

On the 4th of March, 1850, at a Meeting of the Chemical Society, Mr. Robert Warington communicated the results of an experiment which he had been prosecuting for nearly a year, "On the adjustment of the relations between the animal and vegetable kingdoms, by which the vital functions of both are permanently maintained." Two small gold fish were placed in a glass receiver of about twelve gallons' capacity, covered with thin muslin to exclude dust and soot. The vessel was half filled with spring-water, with a bottom of sand and mud, and some loose fragments of limestone and sandstone, so arranged as to afford shelter and shade. A small specimen of Valisneria spiralis was at the same time planted in the mud, and kept in place by a stone. The whole was then left undisturbed.

Every thing went on well for a time, till it was found that the natural decay of the older leaves of the plant began to produce turbidity in the water, and a confervoid growth accumalated [sic] on the sides of the