THE EEL. 335 



arrangement rather resembling the umbilical vein connecting the foetus 

 of a mammal with the parent. The rupture of this produced death 

 instantaneously. 



Of ten eels subsequently opened for the purpose of detecting and 

 observing these creatures, I found five fully furnished with them as 

 before no larger, and in all stages of growth. In each case the eel 

 itself was eminently fat and well-fed, and each was of the sharp-nosed 

 species. Whether they are at all to be met with in the broad-nosed and 

 other species I cannot say, but I have never come across them. I cannot, 

 either, tell the reader what particular parasite this can be, never having 

 before observed it in any fish. That the creature is curious, and more- 

 over plentiful, does not, however, admit of doubt. 



At this juncture I am reminded of the parasitic growths to be found 

 independently and in different positions to the above animalculse of the 

 eel. The entozoic stage of the human tapeworm is frequently found in 

 eels obtained from situations such as Cumberland Lake (Windsor 

 Great Park), into which the effluent of the sewage farm contiguous 

 continuously falls. I had in my possession a worm apparently headless 

 taken from an eel, which measured 7in. on being taken from the fish. 

 However, this is an extraordinary length in the eel, but the lesser size 

 is compensated by the number, which will amount, in exceptional cases, 

 to fifty. This I have repeatedly remarked. An accurate catalogue and 

 description of all the aquatic living parasites which from time to time 

 have come under my notice as denizens of this fish would require a 

 separate chapter, and must not be here given ; but I cannot leave this 

 part of the subject without reverting to a more than usually interesting 

 insect which was taken from the entrail of an eel and lived two months in 

 captivity. It turned out to be the larvae of the gnat tipula crystalUna, 

 but how it continued to live like a second Jonah is to me a mystery. 

 Normally it was nearly transparent, and in. in length, with two small 

 spots towards head and tail, looking like air-bubbles. Flacedat its posterior 

 end, and forming a powerful rudder, was attached a fan-like tail, resembling 

 exactly a fan made of swan- quill pens some twenty-three, or thereabouts. 

 Its head terminated in a hook, at first sight resembling the lower anserine 

 jaw of the pike. It is figured in Lardner's little work on the Micro- 

 scope. 



Eels are subject to a kind of scarlet fever, so called because it turns 

 the fins and the lower part of the body to a light scarlet hue. I think Mr. 

 Buckland has somewhere diagnosed this disorder, but cannot find where. 

 Mr. Pennell, however, quoting from the Leinster Express, throws some light 

 on its character. He says : ' ' During the present season, both eels and 

 pike have frequently been found in a dying state on the surface of the 



