BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 95 



teresting report of his proceedings. He wrote, among other things, that 

 it was quite beyond his expectation that this announcement would have 

 found its way into nearly all the German journals between the Rhine 

 and the Weichsel, and from the Alps to the sea. The number of letters 

 which he received first rejoiced him, then sur^^rised him, finally terrified 

 him, so that at last he was obliged to refuse to attend to the communi- 

 cations. He had learned at Berlin that an equal number of communi- 

 cations from all parts of Germany had been received, sent directly to 

 the address of Professor Virchow. Objects which professed to be young 

 eels cut out of the parents, but which were really thread worms, were 

 sent to him by dozens ; the most incredible stories, usually from women, 

 about great thick eggs which they had found in eels, were received by 

 him. A witty Berliner communicated to him in a j)acket sent by express 

 the information that the eel problem was now happily solved since a 

 lady eel in Berlin had given birth to twins. Finally Herr Dallmer 

 found himself compelled to insert the following notice in the Schleswiger 

 ;N"achrichten : ' Since the German Fischerei-Verein has offered a premium 

 for the first gravid eel, the desire to obtain the prize, curiosity, or the 

 desire for knowledge has created so lively an interest upon this point 

 that it might almost be called a revolution. I at one time offered, when 

 necessarj', to serve as an agent for communications, but since business 

 has compelled me to be absent from home a great part of the time, I 

 would urgently request that hereafter i^ackages should be sent direct to 

 Professor Virchow in Berlin. I feel myself obliged to inform the public 

 upon certain special points. The premium is offered for a gravid eel, 

 not for the contents of such an eel, since if only these were sent it would 

 be uncertain whether they were actually taken from an eel. The eel 

 must always be sent alone ; the majority of senders have hitherto sent 

 me only the intestines or the supposed young of the eel, which were 

 generally intestinal worms ; the eel itself they have eaten ; nevertheless 

 the prize of 50 marks has been exi^ected by nearly all senders, &c. By 

 this transfer of the responsibilities, the inspector of fisheries has rendered 

 a very unthankful service to Professor Virchow ; he was obliged to 

 publish a notice in the papers in which he urgently stated that he 

 wished to be excused from receiving any more packages, for he would 

 hardly know what to do with them. The comic papers of Berlin now 

 circulated the suggestion that hereafter the eel should be sent to the 

 investigators only in a smoked state. This amusing episode is interest- 

 ing in showing how remarkable an interest the whole world was begin- 

 ning to take in the eel problem."* 



XIV. Undoubted normal kepeoductive habits of the eel. — 



Benecke. 



It may be assumed with the greatest safety (writes Benecke) that the 

 eel lays its eggs like most other fish, and that, like the lamprey, it only 



* Zoologischer Anzeiger No. 26, p. 193; American Naturalist, vol. 13, p. 125, and 

 Jacoby, p. 44 . 



