But, although the discovery of Ingenhauss at once rendered the thing practicable, Aquaria did not then come into fashion. The science of natural history was not at that time sufficiently advanced; for the specimens, even in public museums, were merely heterogeneous collections, assembled without the slightest regard to classification, or any other useful purpose. A stuffed cat with nine legs, stood, perhaps, next to a bottled snake, followed by the skin of a crocodile, to be succeeded in turn by a very moth-eaten specimen of a King Charles spaniel, “supposed, upon good authority, to have belonged to Nell Gwynne.” A few scores of such objects, with the addition of an ostrich egg and a few sea-shells, without any attempt at name or description, formed a very respectable museum in those times; and we may, therefore, easily conceive that (in so far as experiments illustrative of natural science were concerned) the suggestions of Ingenhauss remained tolerably dormant.
It was not till the year 1833, that Professor Daubeny communicated, to the British Association at Cambridge, a paper concerning some new researches prosecuted in the same direction; and not till 1837, that Mr. Ward became the first to apply the principle to any purpose analogous to that of the Aquarium. In that year he made a report to the British Association, on the hermetically closed glass cases in which he had succeeded in growing many classes of plants, and keeping them in a healthy state without any fresh supply of air. He stated, at the same time, his belief that certain classes of animals would live and thrive under similar circumstances. This was the first direct hint towards the formation of a closed Vivarium, whether atmospheric or aquatic.
In 1842, Dr. Johnston satisfactorily proved the true vegetable nature of Corallines by observing their growth in a vessel containing sea-water; and thus was established the first true Aquarium. With the experimental tuft of Coralline was a small frond of a green Ulva, and numerous Rissoæ, &c., and several Annelids afterwards appeared, having been, no doubt, attached to the branches of the Coralline, or the fronds of the Ulva. At the end of four weeks the water was still pure, the Molluscs and other animals alive, and the Confervæ grown; the Coralline having thrown out several additional articulations. After eight weeks, the water still remained sweet. But had any animal, of even the lowest order, been so confined, without the accompanying presence of vegetables giving off oxygen, all of that vital gas contained in so small a quantity of water would have been quickly exhausted, and the water would have become corrupt, ammoniacal, and poisonous to the life of any living thing. But the author of this experiment had not in view the testing of the possibility of preserving the forms of ocean life in a healthy state in confinement; his business had been to settle an important point connected with the classification of the Corallines; and having successfully decided that question, the embryo Aquarium was abandoned.
On the 4th of June, 1850, Mr. R. Warrington communicated to the Chemical Society a series of observations on the adjustment of certain relations between the animal and vegetable kingdoms, very important to our present purpose. Two small gold-fish were placed in a glass receiver, a small plant of Valisneria spiralis being planted at the same time in some earth, beneath a layer of sand in the same vessel. All went on well by this arrangement, without any necessity for changing the water; the oxygen given off by the plant proving itself sufficient for the supply of its animal co-tenants, and the water therefore remaining clean and pure, until some decaying leaves of the Valisneria caused turbidity, and confervoid growth began to accumulate on the sides of the vessel. To remedy this evil, Mr. Warrington brought to bear the results of previous observations on water in natural ponds under analogous circumstances; and, guided by these observations and their results, he placed a few common pond-snails in the vessel containing his gold-fish and plant of Valisneria.
The new inmates, immediately upon their introduction, began to feed greedily upon the decaying vegetable matter, and all was quickly restored to a healthy state. They proved, indeed, of still further advantage, for the masses of eggs which they deposited evidently presented a kind of food natural to the fishes, which was eagerly devoured by them, so that the snails became not only the scavengers, but also the feeders of the little colony. And so this first of true Aquaria prospered; the animals and plants proving of mutual value and support to each other. The snails disposed of the decaying leaves, which would have tainted the water and rendered it unfit for the healthy existence of the plant, and the plant in turn gave forth, under the rays of sunlight, the supply of oxygen necessary to both fish and snails.
In January, 1852, Mr. Warrington, commenced a series of similar experiments with sea-water; which were, at first, not so satisfactory, but in the end proved as entirely successful. In the course of his experiments, he found the red and brown Algæ, or sea-weed, less proper for the formation of oxygen than the green. Of the latter class he procured specimens of Enteromorpha and Ulva latissima, which he chiselled from the rocks about Broadstairs, along with the pieces of chalk or flint to which they were attached; and, when he placed them in his own marine Aquarium, he put in along with them, to represent the pond-snails in the fresh-water tank, some of the common sea-snail, better known as the Periwinkle (Littorina littorea). But these proved, it appears, insufficient for the destruction of the mucous and gelatinous matter that arose from the decay of the red sea-weeds, which, however, I have no doubt may yet be cultivated with equal success with the green, as I shall state when describing them. Under the existing difficulty, Mr. Warrington found it necessary to aerate the water by other means, many processes being equally available; such as injecting fresh-water from a syringe, or establishing a drip, of some height, from a vessel containing a supply of entirely fresh-water. Mr. Warrington also discovered, in the course of these experiments, the necessity that the light should pass directly through the surface of the water to the plants, as in natural ponds and seas—a very important step in the successful management of Aquaria; and he therefore had a slab of slate adjusted to the side of his tank which stood next to the light.
These successful experiments, both in fresh-water and marine Aquaria, assign to Mr. Warrington, beyond dispute, the credit of being the originator, or inventor, if the term may be so used, of these charming additions to our conservatories, corridors, and even living-rooms, to which they are certainly a much more attractive and instructive addition than the old globe of blank water, with its pair of gold-fish swimming round and round in ceaseless gyrations, tiresome to behold, in the vain hope of escaping from their glaring and inconvenient prison; in which they would inevitably have perished very shortly but for the daily change of water, which, previous to our knowledge of air-emitting plants and their use, was absolutely necessary.
But another experimentalist was now in the field. Mr. Gosse, whose charming works upon Aquaria and other subjects connected with natural science, have, perhaps, made his name more widely known than that of his predecessor, Mr. Warrington, commenced a series of experiments on the subject of the marine Aquarium, about the same time as the last-named gentleman, in the beginning of January, 1852. His experiments were crowned with such complete success that he was induced to put himself in communication with Mr. David Mitchell, the enterprising Secretary of the Zoological Society, the result of which was the removal of the collection of Annelids and Zoöphytes which Mr. Gosse had formed, to the gardens of the Society in the Regent’s Park; where it formed the nucleus from which has grown the magnificent series of Aquaria in the building constructed specially for their reception. These marine Aquaria at once became a subject of public as well as private interest, and the Aquarium house was so crowded daily with its curious visitors, that it was difficult to get a glimpse of the wonders of the “ocean floor,” and its zoöphytic denizens, which were so successfully exhibited there; principally through the skilful aid and untiring industry of Mr. Gosse, through whose hands above five thousand specimens passed at the time, collected at the request of the Zoological Society.
In his interesting record of his early essays, Mr. Gosse gives us many valuable particulars concerning his successive experiments, and the various disappointments to which he was at first subjected; many of them from causes now too well understood to require repetition. His principal difficulty arose from over-crowding, although his tank did not appear, as he states, too much filled. Another disappointment was caused by putting in animals before the smell of the putty, with which the glass sides were fixed, had sufficiently gone off.
Mr. Gosse’s tank was made with a slate bottom, and birch pillars, in which were grooves to receive the glass; and its dimensions were, two feet long by one foot six wide, the depth not being mentioned.