AND OF STILL WATERS. 



envy. But in the eating of eels, whether plen- 

 tiful or scarce, it is well to remember the advice 

 given in the ancient medical book entitled 

 " Regimen Sanitatis Salernias : " 



Ci Who knows not physic should be nice and choice 

 In eating eels, because they hurt the voice. 

 Both eels and cheese, without good store of wine 

 Well drunk with them, offend at any time." 



For a long period the most extraordinary 

 theories were accepted regarding the birth of 

 young eels. Aristotle believed they sprang 

 from the mud (wherein he was not far wrong, 

 as eels deposit their spawn in mud and 

 sand); Pliny maintained that young eels de- 

 veloped from fragments separated from the 

 parents' bodies by rubbing against rocks ; others 

 supposed that they proceeded from the carcases 

 of animals ; Helmont declared that they came 

 from May-dew, and gave the following recipe 

 for obtaining them : " Cut up two turfs covered 

 with May-dew, and lay one upon the other, the 

 grassy side inwards, and then expose them to 

 the heat of the sun ; in a few hours there will 

 spring from them an infinite quantity of eels." 



