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164
Glaucus; Or, The Wonders of the Shore
·
Charles Kingsley
125
But
all
the
sea-weeds,
in
common
with
other
vegetables,
perform
this
function
continually,
and
thus
maintain
the
water
in
which
they
grow
in
a
state
fit
to
support
animal
life.
This
fact—
first
advanced
by
Priestley
and
Ingenhousz,
and
though
doubted
by
the
great
Ellis,
satisfactorily
ascertained
by
Professor
Daubeny,
Mr.
Ward,
Dr.
Johnston,
and
Mr.
Warrington—
gives
an
answer
to
the
question,
which
I
hope
has
ere
now
arisen
in
the
minds
of
some
of
my
readers,—
How
is
it
possible
to
see
these
wonders
at
home?
Beautiful
and
instructive
as
they
may
be,
can
they
be
meant
for
any
but
dwellers
by
the
sea-side?
Nay
more,
even
to
them,
must
not
the
glories
of
the
water-world
be
always
more
momentary
than
those
of
the
rainbow,
a
mere
Fata
Morgana
which
breaks
up
and
vanishes
before
the
eyes?
If
there
were
but
some
method
of
making
a
miniature
sea-world
for
a
few
days;
much
more
of
keeping
one
with
us
when
far
inland.—
This
desideratum
has
at
last
been
filled
up;
and
science
has
shown,
as
usual,
that
by
simply
obeying
Nature,
we
may
conquer
her,
even
so
far
as
to
have
our
miniature
sea,
of
artificial
salt-water,
filled
with
living
plants
and
sea-weeds,
maintaining
each
other
in
perfect
health,
and
each
following,
as
far
as
is
possible
in
a
confined
space,
its
natural
habits.
To
Dr.
Johnston
is
due,
as
far
as
is
known,
the
honour
of
the
first
accomplishment
of
this
as
of
a
hundred
other
zoological
triumphs.
As
early
as
1842,
he
proved
to
himself
the
vegetable
nature
of
the
common
pink
Coralline,
which
fringes
every
rock-pool,
by
keeping
it
for
eight
weeks
in
unchanged
salt-water,
without
any
putrefaction
ensuing.
The
ground,
of
course,
on
which
the
proof
rested
in
this
case
was,
that
if
the
coralline
were,
as
had
often
been
thought,
a
zoophyte,
the
water
would
become
corrupt,
and
poisonous
to
the
life
of
the
small
animals
in
the
same
jar;
and
that
its
remaining
fresh
argued
that
the
coralline
had
re-oxygenated
it
from
time
to
time,
and
was
therefore
a
vegetable.
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