230 FISH IN SACRIFICES— VIVARIA— ARCHIMEDES 



centuries, at any rate, its valli or breeding grounds have been 

 renowned. Ariosto sings its speciality : 



"La Citta che in mezzo alle piscose 

 Paludi del P6, teme ambe le foci." 



Tasso hands it down as the place where the fish — 



" finds itself within a prison swamp 

 Nor can escape, for that seraglio 

 Is aye to entrance wide, to exit barred." 



At the present day over twelve hundred tons of fish, eight 

 hundred of them eels, are annually captured at Comacchio.^ 



Since the above was printed, new and interesting evidence 

 of the importance of fish, not only as an economic, but also as 

 a hygienic, factor in the nation's prosperity has been furnished 

 by Prof. J. A. Thomson in his lecture before the Royal 

 Institution, January 6, 1921. 



He traced a connection between the decHne of Greece and 

 a shortage of little fishes. There was strong reason to believe 

 .that one of the causes for the decay of "the glory that was 

 Greece " was that malaria was brought into the State. 



The little creature, which caused malaria, lived on the 

 mosquito by whom it was carried. The mosquito spent its 

 larval life in the fresh waters. Little fish were the enemy of 

 the mosquito — particularly the fish known as "millions" — 

 which consumed the pest at a great rate. 



The professor suggested, therefore, that what had happened 

 in Greece was that there had not been enough little fish to 

 keep the mosquitos in check. Because of this, malaria had 

 been brought into the country, and that plague helped, if it 

 did not cause, the destruction of the wonderful civilisation of 

 Greece. 



» Faber, op. cit.. 86. Cf. Revue Contemporaine. June 30 and July 15. 1S54, 

 where the hsheries at Comacchio are described at length. 



