IV -THE EEL QUESTION. 



By Dr. Jacoby.* 



[From " Der Fischfang in der Lagune von Comacchio nebst einer Darstellung der 

 Aalfrage. Von Dr. L. Jacoby." Berlin. 1880.] 



HISTORY OF THE EEL QUESTION. — ANTIQUITY (ARISTOTLE). — MEDIE- 

 VAL AND MODERN FABLES REGARDING THE EEL. — HISTORY. OF THE 

 DISCOVERY OF THE FEMALE EEL. — DESCRIPTION OF ITS OVARIA. 



"Among all the animals that surround us the eel is the only one 

 which has never unveiled the secret of its propagation even to the most 

 persevering investigators." This assertion, made almost forty years ago 

 by Martens in his work " Italien," is true to some extent even at the 

 present day. To a person not acquainted with the circumstances of the 

 case it must seem astonishing, and it certainlj'is somewhat humiliating 

 to men of science, that a fish which is commoner in many parts of the 

 world than any other fish, the herring perhaps excepted, which is daily 

 seen in the market and on the table, has been able, in spite of the pow- 

 erful aid of modern science, to shroud the manner of its propagation, 

 its birth, and its death, in darkness, which even to the present day has 

 not been completely dispelled. There has been an eel question ever since 

 the existence of natural science.t 



To the ancient Greeks the eel seems to have been a strange mystery. 

 Even in very ancient times people were astonished to find that, whilst 

 all other fish at certain seasons of the year contained eggs and semen — 

 spawn and milt — such were never found in eels, although many thou- 

 sands were opened for culinary purposes. A proof that the ancients at 

 a very early time took an interest in this question is found in the jocose 

 remark made by several Greek poets, that, since all children whose 

 paternity was doubtful were ascribed to Jupiter, he must be considered 

 as the progenitor of the eels.| 



*Die Aalfrage. Von Dr. L. Jacoby. — Translated by Herman Jacobson. 



t " Non mediocre Philosopbis ac Naturae scrutatoribus negotium facessere semper est 

 visa Anguillarum procreatio." (The procreation of tbe eel bas at all times been a 

 difficult problem for pbilosopbers and naturalists.) Witb these words Cajetan Monti 

 begins bis article on tbe procreation of tbe eel in tbe "Transactions of tbe Acade- 

 my of Bologna," 1783. 



t" Hsec fuit nimirum causa, cur Grseci quidam poetse, quasi per jocum quod certus 



earum stirpis auctor deesset, Jove natas diserint." — Cajetan Monti in tbe treatise 



quoted above, p. 393. 



463 



