HIPPOCAMPUS EASTMAN. 353 



Cube,^ compiler of " Hortus Sanitatis," and also Conrad Gesner, in 

 the middle of the sixteenth century, both of whom quote Albertus, 

 fall into the same error of treating the " Zidrach," " Equus marinis," 

 and Hippocampus as separate and distinct kinds of fishes. 



Both Vincentius and Albertus Magnus, and also the English 

 Franciscan scholar, Bartholomew, whose w^ork on " The Properties 

 of Things " was written some j^ears prior to 12G0, take a number of 

 their descriptions of fishes from " De Animalibus" of Joratli (or 

 Jorach), an eastern, perhaps Persian, Christian writer of whom 

 little is known. Bartholomew's encyclopedia, composed originally 

 in Latin and translated into English by John Trevisa in 1397, con- 

 tains rich materials for the study of the history of science and of 

 literature. We become acquainted through it with popular medieval 

 theories in the circle of sciences that are scarcely attainable other- 

 wise, and modern students regard it as " one of the most important 

 documents, by the help of which we rebuild for ourselves the fabric 

 of medieval life." ^ 



In view of the fact that popular beliefs concerning the sea horse 

 and " ship stayer," or Remora, run a parallel course from the thir- 

 teenth century onward, it may be instructive to offer at this point 

 the account given by Bartholomew of the Remora. In Trevisa's 

 version the name Echeneis is either misprinted or corrupted into 

 " Enchirius," just as Albertus Magnus and his copyists employ the 

 erroneous term of " Zydeath " for Zidrach, meaning " sea dragon." 

 The account reads: 



Enchirius is a little fish unnetli [only] half a foot long: for though he be 

 full little of body, nathless he is most of virtue. For he cleaveth to the ship, 

 and holdeth it still stedfastly in the sea, as though the ship were on ground 

 therein. Though winds blow, and waves arise strongly, and wood [violent] 

 storms, that ship may not move nother [neither] pass. And that fish holdeth 

 not still the ship by no craft, but only cleaving to the ship. It is said of the 

 same fish that when he knoweth and feeleth that tempests of wind and 

 weather be great, he cometh and taketh a great stone, and holdeth him fast 

 thereby, as it were by an anchor, lest he be smitten away and thrown about 

 by waves of the sea. And shipmen see this and beware that they be not 

 overset unwarily with tempest and with storms. 



After the time of these medieval encyclopedists no important ad- 

 ditions to the literature of ichthyology were made until the third 

 decade of the sixteenth century, and such notices of fishes as ap- 



1 The first edition of tlie Hortus, or " Ortus/' Sanitatis appeared at Metz in 1475 and 

 was a number of times reprinted. It is one of tlie earliest printed boolss containing illus- 

 trations of fish and fishing scenes. The next oldest work containing similar figures is 

 " Dialogues of Creatures Moralysed," of which an English reprint, edited by Joseph Hasle- 

 wood, was published in 1816. For an account of von Cube's compilation one may consult 

 an article by H. S. C. Everard in the New Ulustrated Magazine for July, 1S9S, p. 263-271. 



2 Robert Steele, in his epitome of Bartholomew's Encyclopedia entitled " Medieval Lore." 

 London, 1S93. 



18618°— SM 1915 23 



