336 THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



water. They seem emaciated, ar the inside of the mouth presents a 

 funguous ulceration covering the teeth, palate, and tongne, and when the 

 body is opened the stomach is filled with a green slimy substance. Eels 

 are seen with little apparent life for a day or so, and afterwards dead in 

 shoal water (the place where all wounded or sick fish swim to), the under 

 part of the body, from the mouth to the tail, is speckled with blood-red 

 spots, and the mouth is sometimes filled full of coagulated blood. How- 

 ever, the fish does not seem to be in bad condition or to have suffered so 

 long as the pike ; the same kinds of fish in the canal about Monaster- 

 Evan have also suffered from the same malady." The cause of this is 

 yet unknown ; I should be inclined to fancy it lay in the contamination 

 of the water. 



And this reminds me of a curious characteristic of the flesh of the 

 living eel. It is well known that fish are capable of absorbing to a great 

 extent both the odour and flavour of any strong tasting and smelling 

 essence capable of minute division not solution in water. Thus a 

 tincture of lavender, aniseed, caraways, or cloves, regulated with a 

 certain quantity of pure water, transmits its flavour to the fish placed 

 therein without being the immediate cause of any discomfort to the live 

 fish. In the eel this faculty is extraordinarily developed. A medical 

 friend of mine detected the presence of belladonna, opium, strychnia, 

 sulphate of quinine, and other strong drugs in the flesh of eels prepared 

 by myself in the manner indicated ; whilst its colour was strongly varied 

 by the introduction of indigo, cochineal, and madder. How far disease 

 may be transmitted by the eel is uncertain, but I entertain the opinion 

 that considerable injury is annually received by eel eaters from the con- 

 sumption of fish which have remained in contiguity with dead or corrupt 

 matter for any length of time such as sewage, dye, refuse, or fetid mud 

 laden with marsh gas (sulphuretted hydrogen) . 



It may now be opportune to turn to that very vexed question 

 though question it really now no longer is as to the generation of eels. 



First, as to the sexual organ. What says Dr. Mitchell ? " The foes 

 or ovaria of eels may be seen by those who will look for them in the 

 proper season, like those of other fishes." And this is true. Jesse, 

 who devoted a lot of time to the elucidation of the problem, thus 

 describes the organ : 



" The sexual organ consists of two long narrow sacs, extending one 

 on each side of the air bladder throughout the whole length of the 

 abdominal cavity, and continued two inches posterior to the vent. The 

 membranes forming this tubular sac, secreting on the inner surface the 

 milt of the male, and affording attachment for the ova in the female, are 

 puckered or gathered along the line of junction to the peritoneal covering 



