Jan. 22—Ever since I made an entry in my diary about food for Goldfish I have been attacked by every fancier of the golden carpet in this city, all surprised at my ignorance of the fact that the favourite food known alternatively) as Water-flea, Water-louse or Daphnia: I must: state I am, and always have been. the most goldfishless man in China, but if I had to handle these titbits I should certainly chose the third name, as the others sound to me somewhat revolting. One erudite goldfish-fancier very kindly handed me the following information—"Daphnia puler, the commonest species found in ponds and ditches, Jess than one-tenth of an inch in length, has its body enclosed in a transparent bivalved shell. The female carries her eggs in a brooding chamber....until hatching takes place: throughout the greater part of the year only females occur and the eggs develop parthenogenetically. When the small eggs appear. generally in the autumn, fertilized "winter" or "resting eggs" are produced which are set adrift in an ephippium formed by a specially modified portion of the parent's shell. These "resting eggs" enable the race to survive the cold of winter or the drying up of the water. It is interesting to note that that Metschnikoff observed in the daphnia the phagocytes of the blood devouring bacteria and.and thus started his investigations into the functions of the white corpuscles." Coo-er! (as the youth of ihe nation say when receiving a mental shock) I little knew that I was tottering on the brink of such an ocean of long words when I watched that simple countryman working his white cotton net in a stagnant pond! But I am glad to know that the goldfish enjoy their spot of Daphnia.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.