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.