EELS. 177 



and in rivers and lakes near the banks where the heat of the sun engenders putrefaction."* 

 Aristotle believed that there was no difference of sex in the Eel, but that the so-called male 

 and female were different species. He speaks correctly, however, of its migrating to the sea, 

 of its nocturnal habits, of its dislike to very cold, and its love of pure fresh water. f Pliny's 

 notion was as absurd as that of Aristotle as to the origin of Eels. "They rub themselves 

 against rocks, and their scrapings come to life. Nor have they any other mode of propagation. "J 



Other ancient writers were of opinion that Eels originated in the carcases of dead horses 

 (as Virgil supposed bees were produced from the dead body of an ox). Curiously enough, 

 Gesner sees no improbability in the above solution of the difficulty, but thinks that other 

 carcases besides those of horses may engender Eels.§ And yet he does also give the true 

 account when he says that the sexes are plainly to be distinguished. || It is remarkable, 

 therefore, that Gesner should have had recourse to the "spontaneous production" theory; 

 but we must remember that in his time this was a popular creed ; and even this learned 

 writer was not free from the fallacies of his age. Helmont gives the following recipe for 

 obtaining young Eels: — "Cut up two turfs covered with May-dew, and lay one upon the 

 other, the grassy sides inwards, and thus expose them to the heat of the sun ; in a few 

 hours there will spring from them an infinite quantity of Eels." Some writers, as Schwenckfeld 

 and Schoneveld, appear to have mistaken parasitic leeches and Gordian worms for the young 

 of the Eel. Chopped horse-hair, thrown into the water, was deemed a certain method of 

 obtaining Eels ; this opinion I have found to prevail amongst the uneducated classes to 

 this day in some of the midland counties.^ It is remarkable that even Walton seems to 

 have imbibed contentedly the popular notions of his day, "That Eels may be bred as some 

 worms, and some kind of bees and wasps are, seems to be made probable by the barnacles 

 and young goslings bred by the sun's heat and the rotten planks of an old ship, and 

 hatched of trees."**— (P. 281.) 



In another place Walton affirms his belief in the notion that Pike were sometimes 



produced from pickerel weed (p. 230). Such superstitions find a place in the "Piscatory 



Eclogues." 



"Saj', canst thou tell how worms of moisture breed, 

 Or pike are gendered of the pickrel-weed ? 

 How carp without the parent seed renew, 

 Or slimy Eels are form'd of genial dew.?" 



The opinion that Eels are viviparous, though quite free from the absurdity that charac- 

 terises the notions I have already mentioned, is unquestionably erroneous. It is not a 

 little remarkable that the anatomy of the fish should not have been earlier ascertained. 

 "Who can say," writes Dr. Badham as late as 1854, "that they have taken a female in roe, 

 or tasted a male's milt?" If you ask a fishmonger whether he has ever seen the spawn of 

 an Eel, he will think you are joking with him, and will probably consider "Eel's spawn" to 

 be nearly analogous to "a mare's nest," or "pigeon's milk!" 



* Hist. Anim. vi. 15, § z. f Hist. Anim. vi. 13, § 7; viii. 4, § 5, 6. 



% Nat. Hist. ix. 50. Oppian's theory will be found at Hal. i. 849. 



§ "In putredine gignitur Anguilla ut vermes in terra, id quod experientia compertum fuit. Aliquando enim equo 

 mortuo in Magalonas stagnum injecto, paulio post innumerabiles Anguillae illic visse sunt, quod ego ita accipio ut non 

 ex equi tantum, sed etiam ex aliorum animalium cadaveribus generentur." — De Aquatilibus, iii. p. 40, C. 



II "Vidi equidem Anguillas mutuo corporum complexu coeuntes, neque puto partibus ad gignendum necesariis 

 prorsus destitutas esse: inferiore enim ventris parte et vulva in foeminis et semen in maribus reperitur: sed pinguitudine 

 multa circumfusK hae partes non apparent, quemadmodum neque ova pinguitudine permista." — Ibid., p. 42, D. 



*\ I have been informed that the same mode of accounting for the origin of Eels exists amongst the unlearned 

 in Scotland. 



** See the well-known plate of the goose tree, barnacle tree, or the tree bearing geese, in Gerard's Herbal, last 

 plate. 



2 A 



