EISEL.] NATURAL HISTORY. 99 



blows. Among all Eels there is no male nor female, and 

 they gender neither live creature nor egg, as they are 

 neuter. Hortus Sanitatis, bk. iv. 2. 



THE Eel is a well known fish ; and its virtues are won- 

 derful ; for if it dies from want of water and its body 

 remains whole, and if strong vinegar be mixed with the 

 blood of a vulture, and it be put somewhere under dung, 

 they will all revive just as they were before. And if the 

 worm [? spinal marrow] of that Eel be extracted and set 

 in the foresaid mixture for a month, the worm will be changed 

 into a very black Eel, and if any one eat of that Eel he 



Albertus Magnus, " Of the Virtues of Animals." 



IN many ponds, all the water and mud taken out, by 

 and by Eels do breed, if rain-water come into them, for 

 that with the dew, they do live and are nourished. 



Lupton, "A Thousand Notable Things," bk. iii. 63. 



IF you have many Eels in a vessel of wine, and put 



mulberries to them, if any one drink of that, he will 

 abhor wine for a year, and perhaps for ever. 



Albertus Magnus, " Of the Wonders of the World." 



Thunder shall not so awake the beds of eels. 



PERICLES, iv. 3, 156. 



Eels that never will appear 

 Till that tempestuous winds or thunder tear 

 Their slimy beds. 



Marstorfs " Scourge of Villany," satire vii. 1. 78. 



V. Fish. 

 Eglantine. 



MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, ii. I, 252. 

 [The sweet-briar.] 



V. s. Rose. 



Eisel. V. Vinegar. 



HAMLET, v. I, 299. 



