170 Tue Microscope. 
In the December issue of this journal appeared an article 
by Dr. F. L. James, of St. Louis, entitled ‘‘The Fakir and His 
Little Fakes.” This article first suggested to me the idea that 
there was any secret about it. I had seen the “ fake” in suc- 
cessful operation many times, and understood it, but supposed 
the fakirs made paste until the perhaps part turned in their 
favor. 
Some time after reading Dr. James’s article, I had a con- 
versation with a fakir. He told me substantially what Dr. 
James’s article did. They procured a little “starter” from the 
“boss fakir,’ and kept up their stock by the addition of fresh 
paste. He had the secret, but would not sell it for less than 
fifty dollars; and, moreover, he had another “ fake” on hand 
which he hardly dared use, because it was so wonderful that 
it would attract too great a crowd about his stand! But it was 
the “‘ secret’ which interested me. What could it be? 
One evening I was looking over an old work on the micro- 
scope, when I saw a paragraph giving directions for raising 
the eels. 
It differed from most of these directions by recommending 
the addition of a few drops of cider vinegar. Evidently that 
had something to do with the secret, so I resolved to try it. I 
had a small bottle of the vinegar on my desk; so, the next day, 
while at the college laboratory, I boiled up some paste. When 
cool I added a few drops of the vinegar, taking care to get as 
many eels as possible. The result was even better than I had 
anticipated. In a few days the paste seemed full of them! 
This, then, is probably the secret, for it has been successful in 
each instance in which I have’ tried it. Cider vinegar almost 
invariably contains eels, so that it forms a very reliable “starter.” 
It is not necessary that the paste be sour, for the eels seem to 
thrive as well in fresh paste as in anything else. 
Although a specific distinction, in name at least, is gener- 
ally made between the eels of paste and vinegar, my observa- 
tions lead me to believe that they are in reality the same, but 
that the greater nutrient matter in the paste is condustive to a 
much greater corporeal as well as numerical development. It 
is stated that they are both oviparous and viviparous, but I have 
seen no true indications of the former condition, although by 
