The Common Eel 



dence for many centuries, there were those who accepted them 

 only in part, or rejected them altogether. Pliny maintained that 

 young eels spring from the slime and fragments of skin which 

 come off when eels rub themselves against the rocks. 



Albertus Magnus (1,200 years later) accepted Pliny's views, 

 but says he has heard that eels are also born alive from eels! 

 Rondelet (400 years still later) says that eels are born not only 

 from putrefied matter, but also from eggs produced by copulation 

 of male and female eels. 



Walpiglie (i7th century) declares that the ovaries of eels 

 are fatty productions, which he calls "striae adiposse." Redi, of 

 the same period, claimed that eels are produced just the same 

 as other fishes are, while Leuwenhoek, an expert microscopist, 

 found certain small parasites in the bladder of an eel, and, mis- 

 taking the bladder for the uterus, thought these parasites were 

 young eels. 



Not until the i8th century was the presence of ovaries in 

 the female eel demonstrated by Sancassini, a learned surgeon of 

 Comacchio, Italy. But his demonstration was questioned by 

 other investigators. Apparently the first to describe fully the 

 ovaries and eggs of the eel was the Italian naturalist, Mondini, 

 in 1777, so that the discovery of the female eel must date from 

 him. 



The search for the male eel was scarcely less prolonged or 

 less interesting. The details need not be given here. Not until 

 1873 was anyone successful. On November 29 of that year, Dr. 

 Syrski, then at Trieste, made the important discovery, which 

 many other investigators have since verified. 



It is now comparatively easy to distinguish the sexes of the 

 eel. In the first place the male is smaller than the female of 

 the same age. The ovaries of the female are two yellowish or 

 reddish-white elongate bodies, as broad as one's finger, lying along- 

 side the backbone, arranged in numerous transverse folds, extending 

 throughout the entire length of the abdominal cavity. These two 

 bodies are so large as not to be easily overlooked, but they contain 

 such a quantity of fatty cells, and the eggs imbedded in them 

 are so small and delicate, that one might easily believe, even 

 after a superficial microscopic examination, that the whole organ 

 consists only of fat. The testes, or spermatic organs of the 

 male, are not ribbon-shaped like the ovaries, but represent two 



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