284, THE LARVA OF THE EEL. 
can young eels be obtained which are less than 5 cm, long. Contrary 
assertions are to be found in literature. It has been asserted that there 
are eels only 2 or 8 cm. long, or even as small as 7 mm. (about § inch), 
but critical examination shows that no such statements rest on direct 
observation. The Leptocephali brevirostres, which are the larvee of 
the eel, have hitherto escaped observation in other places on account 
of their habit of hiding themselves in the bottom of the sea. 
The authors add some curious remarks concerning the history 
of the knowledge of the subject. They tell us that it is a fact that 
the fishermen of Augusta know by tradition the metamorphosis of 
the Mureenide, by which we presume is meant that they have a 
tradition that Leptocephali are the immature or larval forms of 
congers and eels. It is also a fact that at Catania the Leptocephali are 
commonly called Morenelle, or little Mureene. It is to be inferred 
that from time to time some observant fishermen have noticed simi- 
larities or transition stages which led them to express this conclusion 
among their fellows. 
Aristotle states, in his History of Animals, that eels have no sexes, 
nor eggs, nor semen, and that they arise from yn¢ wrepa, the 
entrails of the earth. By this expression some have understood 
earthworms, others have maintained that the Greeks applied it to 
all sorts of creeping, limbless creatures living in soil or mud, and 
believed that these were spontaneously generated. At Palermo the 
Leptocephali are called lombricit or vermicella di mare, and Grassi 
and his colleague suggest that perhaps the belief that these lombrici 
gave rise to Mureenids reached Aristotle in some form or other, and 
so caused him to write that eels arose from the entrails of the 
earth. The authors remark that if these suggestions are accepted we 
may well exclaim, ‘‘ Nothing new under the sun.” But probably most 
people will agree that, interesting as the traditional knowledge of 
the fishermen may be, as far as science in the present time is con- 
cerned, the knowledge of the transformation of the eel and other 
Murzenide is due to the patient and fruitful investigations of Grassi 
and Calandruccio. 
Considering that eels are so common, it will be a matter of much 
interest to make renewed attempts to discover their larvee and those of 
the conger at Plymouth, and at other places outside the Mediter- 
ranean. The subject suggests two interesting questions : firstly, are 
Leptocephali pelagic or not, or are some pelagic and some not? 
secondly, are the eges of the Murenidz pelagic, or some pelagic 
and some not, as in other families of fishes? It appears from the 
account given by Grassi and Calandruccio that the Leptocephali at 
Catania are captured on the bottom, and we have just seen that 
these authors conclude that the larva of the eel has escaped capture 
