THE MILLER'S THUMB. 53 



roach are peculiarly liable. Generally, however, this does not prove 

 fatal. 



*- The names by which this fish is known are worthy of attention. 

 The term "Miller's Thumb" unquestionably is given it from some 

 fancied or real resemblance to a peculiarity of the miller's thumb. 

 Yarrell, whether rightly or wrongly, thus speaks of it : "It is well 

 known that all the science and tact of a miller are directed so to 

 regulate the machinery of his mill that the meal produced shall be of 

 the most valuable description that the operation of grinding will permit 

 when performed under the most advantageous circumstances. His 

 profit or his loss, even his fortune or his ruin, depend upon the exact 

 adjustment of all the various parts of the machinery in operation. 

 The miller's ear is constantly directed to the note made by the running- 

 stone during its rotation over the bed-stone, the exact parallelism of 

 their two surfaces, indicated by a particular sound, being a matter of 

 the first consequence ; and his hand is as constantly placed under the 

 meal-spout, to ascertain by actual contact the character and qualities 

 of the meal produced. The thumb, by a peculiar movement, spreads 

 the sample over the fingers ; the thumb, in fact, employed with tact, 

 is the gauge of the value of the produce ; and hence have arisen the 

 sayings of 'Worth a miller's thumb,' and 'An honest miller hath a 

 golden thumb' (Bay's Proverbs), in reference to the amount of profit 

 that is the reward of his skill. By incessant use in this way, the 

 miller' a thumb acquires a form which is said to resemble exactly the 

 shape of the head of the fish so constantly found in the mill-stream, 

 and called the Miller's Thumb." An allusion to the name occurs in 

 Beaumont and Fletcher's comedy of "Wit at several Weapons" and in 

 Merrett's " Pinax." I have heard the expression "Miller's Thumb" 

 used in Gloucestershire in reference to a congenital malformation of 

 the thumb, by which the nail rather resembles a Spanish chestnut 

 than a filbert, and I can entertain but little doubt but that Yarrell' s 

 solution of the cognomen is correct. The alias bullhead requires little 

 explanation. One is familiar with the action of a bull when charging 

 an opponent not from actual experience, I hope, however and the 

 ostrich-like burrowing and charging of the bullhead must resemble 

 those of our own taurus. Mr. Manley, with Badham-like predilection 

 for etymological humour, gives a string of words with a prefix 

 illustrative of the word before us: "Bull trout, bull beggar, bullbriar, 

 bullier, bulldog, bullfice, bullfinch, bullfrog," and adds, "Is this prefix 

 our ' bull ' (the bovine creature, ornament and terror of our meadows) 

 which is said to come from the Anglo-Saxon bellan to war (by the 

 way, the red deer in North Devon are said to bell), or is it 'bull,' 



