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The Aquarist

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The Aquarist The Aquarist the aquarium has a high and useful mission to perform for the public good above there mere value as profitable i financial investments The aquarium was one of a succession of enthusiasms associated with the Victorian interest in natural history. Barber records the 'invention' of the aquarium as occurring in 1850 and soon after they were a common feature of every drawing room.ii Although the home aquarium craze ended about 1870, it was replaced by the 'sudden fashion in huge purpose- iii built public aquaria and soon every large town in England was clamouring to have its own. The development of the steam engine allowed large volumes of water to be circulated for the first time and to charge the water with compressed air. The first public aquarium in London, 'The Fish House' in Regents Park, was developed by the then Secretary of the Zoological Society, W.D.Mitchell, with water circulated through the tanks by gravity between two cisterns and returned by a hand pump. Machinery was first used to circulate the water in the Paris Aquarium that opened in 1859. The wonders of the deep could now be brought into the heart of every large town, and observed in comfort for the price of an entrance ticket. The new facilities were built by private companies as a business venture based on entertainment, but also offered superb research opportunities. Francis Buckland had been demonstrating his techniques of salmon culture at the South Kensington Museum since 1863, and after 1867 he became an energetic advocate for the use of aquaria to study commercial sea fish.iv The success in Europe of W.A.Lloyd, a well-recognised naturalist and aquarist, had led him to invest in England. His Crystal Palace Aquarium Company opened in February 1872, with sixty large tanks ranging up to twenty feet long displaying a wide range of fish and invertebrates. After Richard Owen opened the facility, Buckland spoke on the desirability of using these aquaria for more than entertainment and instruction. His experience as Inspector of Salmon Fisheries had demonstrated that effective regulation of commercial sea fisheries demanded an understanding of the life cycle and behaviour of these species as a pre-requisite, and much of this information could be obtained from observations in large aquaria. Brighton opened its aquarium in 1872, Manchester and Southport followed in 1874, and two more, Westminster and Great Yarmouth began in 1876. 'The Brighton and Crystal Palace aquaria will do much to spread a correct knowledge of the life and habits of all kinds of fish'.v The privately owned public aquaria provided Saville-Kent with an enticing opportunity: he was offered the position of resident biologist at the new Brighton Aquarium. The use of these modern temples of the Victorian age in the scientific study of fishes became his new passion. There were 'high hopes that Mr Lloyd and Mr Saville-Kent would solve a great many of the questions regarding to the acclimatisation of various kinds of foreign fish' but the real value of these institutions will be in the solution to problems connected with food vi fishes'. To this time Saville-Kent's prime professional interest had been the description and classification of museum specimens. Now he turned to the behaviour of living marine species. Life in the Prince Regent's city Brighton was an obvious location for this type of new attraction, but construction was delayed by the necessity of obtaining parliamentary approval to reclaim the foreshore to create the site. Construction began a year later in 1869 but the contractor defaulted and the Aquarium was finished under the direction of the Council architect John Sloper Nightingale, who was awarded a medal at the 1872 London International Exhibition for the design.vii Due to the delay the Aquarium was not opened until August 1872. Following the ceremony the Mayor, Cordy Burrows, hosted a lavish luncheon at the Royal Pavilion. The absence of Royalty was much regretted but 'the amiable young Prince Arthur had, so to speak, partially opened the institution' during a visit to the unfinished aquarium the previous Easter.viii Amongst the honoured guests was Frank Buckland. The scientific community was represented by Dr William Carpenter, the President-elect of the British Association who was in Brighton for the annual meeting of the Association; the official opening had been postponed a week to coincide with that event. Carpenter also encouraged naturalists to use the facility for research, drawing attention to the abundant availability of saltwater compared to the cost of carrying water to the Crystal Palace. Both Carpenter and the Mayor invoked the national aspirations of the establishment. The Aquarium was built and operated by the Brighton Aquarium Company with a board of directors made up of local businessmen chaired by George Somes. The first General Manager and Secretary of the facility was John Keast Lord, a friend of Buckland since 1863 and a staff member of Buckland's journal Land and Water. Almost immediately Lord fell ill and Buckland and another writer from Land and Water, Henry Lee FLS, stepped in to help.ix They stocked the tanks and, with Lord's death, Lee became Naturalist/Manager. Five months later the Times reported the appointment of Saville-Kent, 'favourably known for his biological and zoological researches' and that his position of curator was 'occasioned by the lamented decease of Mr. J.K.Lord'.x Writing in Land and Waterxi Buckland referred to Saville-Kent as 'my friend and colleague'; it seems likely he had encouraged the move from the Museum to the new venture. Buckland was not only a regular visitor at the Museum but a close family friend of Saville-Kent's sponsor, Richard Owen. Lee was also a well-known microscopist and quite probably he and Saville-Kent originally met through this interest. William and Elizabeth left Stoke Newington and moved their home to 1 Upper Rock Gardens in Brighton. The shift from the cloistered surroundings of the British Museum to the commercial world was a shock. He told Gunther: I speedily discovered that in several members of the Board I had to encounter the strongest prejudices against the scientific status my election as resident Naturalist was calculated to lend to the Institution, and that those men who regarded the undertaking merely as a financial speculation were altogether opposed to the appointment of myself or any other scientific representative as an unnecessary extravagance.xii Not one to be put off by such lack of appreciation for his vocation, Saville-Kent began scientific observations and a review of the design of the aquarium. A new guidebook for the facility was one of his early accomplishments. He found the design of the aquarium system adequate but inefficient for display purposes and limited for research use. Diligent attempts were made to hold specimens of all the commercially important species; Bertram was intrigued to see the hatching of the herring. The live herring display was of both scientific and lay interest.xiii To provide a place of entertainment, strenuous efforts were made to stock the tanks with exotic specimens, and providing a continuous supply was not easy. When the prize specimens died, telegrams were sent out to potential suppliers for replacements. The Times reported such an effort in March 1873 following the death of the prize octopus. Telegrams preceded the passage of 'the interesting stranger' from Cornwall by night mail to Paddington Station and thence in the early morning to Brighton under the care of 'sub-curator Lawler'.xiv Less than three hours after Lawler returned to Brighton, another telegram arrived announcing the dispatch of another octopus from Jersey, and he immediately left for Southampton to receive it. The effort was obviously worthwhile for the octopus received favourable notices in various newspapers throughout the summer. A performance of Man and Wife at the Brighton Theatre Royal was delayed when the star, Charles Collette, was 'allegedly drawn into the octopus tank by its resident star'. Collette was said to have been unsuccessfully demonstrating his powers as a snake charmer to the general manager of the aquarium. The actor was fortunately prised loose from the cephalopod by aquarium staff in time for a late curtain call. In August a small seal arrived at the Aquarium, again by train, to charm visitors with 'beautiful soft eyes' and an impersonation of 'a cabman warming the tips of his fingers on a wintry day'.xv Saville-Kent wanted 'aquaria built on more correct and perfect principles' than he found at Brighton. His decision to extensively aerate the water much improved the performance of the facility but upset W.A.Lloyd who had been the consultant to the designer. Saville-Kent had been supported in his application for the Brighton position by Henry Lee, with whom he had 'cordial relations', but the enthusiasm and drive with which the new Naturalist tackled the modifications of the operations of the aquarium resulted in the Board looking on him rather than Lee, 'as their chief officer and responsible for the entire management of the tanks and their contents'. Lee, who now signed himself as 'Consulting Naturalist' in his regular contributions to Land and Water may have therefore begun to doubt the wisdom of the appointment of the new scientist. When the Board planned to introduce Saville-Kent to the King of the Belgians as 'curator and chief officer in charge', relations between the two scientists cooled. The Mayor, now Sir Cordy Burrows, had joined the Board and was 'kindly disposed' to Saville-Kent.xvi Despite Huxley's public campaign to promote the profession, scientists were still a rarity in Brighton.
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