( 68 ) 



a part of this jncmbranc or cuticle, which we call flime, is rubbed 

 off in the paHage ; and that wiien Eels are kept in any kind of veflcl 

 without water, and in their motion wear off this cuticle, they can- 

 not long furvive ; and upon my talking over this lub)c6l with a 

 Fifli-nionger, who was a very intelligent man in his bufinefs, he con- 

 firmed all that I have here mentioned. 



Further, I imagined that this cuticle or Ikin io covering the fcales 

 of Eels, and in Tome fort proceeding from the fcales themfelves, 

 and the veflels which in a great meafure compofe that fkin which 

 we imagine to be flime, extend fo far and vv'ide, that the vedels pro- 

 ceeding from one fcale fpread over more than twejity-iive others, 

 and that this is the reafon w hy this flimy matter covering the fcales 

 is fo thick and tough. 



But, not yet fatisfied with thefe obfervations, I endeavoured to 

 find out the veflels in the fcales from whence thefe Aim}' excremen- 

 titious veflels were formed, and in order to exhibit more plainly the 

 rousfh or wrinkled make of the fcales, I have caufed an exceedino; 

 fmall particle of one to be delineated, the appearance of which, by 

 the microfcope, was that of a lucid or bright cryflal, both v^ithin and 

 without. This is fliewn in jig. i, I K L M, wherin the fide I M, re- 

 j)refents that part which was fixed or rooted in the Fiih, being about 

 the length of two common grains of fand. I have fometimes divi- 

 ded the Icales of this Fifli into fmall parts, and I always found that 

 though the wrinkles in them appeared very pellucid, they were com- 

 ))ofed of nothing but thofe inconceivably flender flreaks, or rather 

 ' veflels, mixed and twiflied one within another, as is in fome fort re- 

 prefented in this figure by the letters K LN. 



Some years after the preceding obfervations were publiflied, I 

 received from a perfon of fome note in this city, a parcel of fcales 

 taken from a very large Carp which had been kept in his Filh-pond, 

 and was 'io tame that it would take food out of a pcrfon's hand. 



