The Aquarium; an Unveiling of the Wonders of the Deep Sea

London, John Van Voorst, 1856, Second and best edition. . original blind-stamped cloth, gilt spine title lettering, all edges gilted, name on endpaper, slight foxing on two pages, but a near fine, clean copy. . 12mo [19 x 13 cm]; xiv, 304, [vi, ads] pp, 6 fine mounted color lithographs (chromolithographs) from the author's paintings including frontis, with tissue guards, 8 other plates (lignigraphs), index. . This is the first book devoted to the aquarium, and the marine biologist author's most popular work, published near the beginning of the craze where persons would collect specimens from the seashore and add them to their home aquariums, in the days before pet stores. It was Gosse who coined the name 'aquarium' after considering previous names such as vivarium and aqua-vivarium. Freeman 60: 'Gosse's second study of the sea-shore is full of infectious enthusiasm. It is as much about observations of marine animals in the wild, particularly those at the bottom of the tide and below, as it is about the servicing of a marine aquarium and was an important influence behind the mid-Victorian craze for keeping aquariums.' Barber (Heyday of Natural History) 117: 'The first and best was appropriately provided by Gosse in The Aquarium of 1854. . . it was the most successful of Gosse's books'. This second edition has the original colored plates and also additional plates and text that were not in the first edition of 1854. Some of the text has been re-written, other parts brought up-to-date and augmented. A picture of this book is available on request by email.