LIFE HISTORY OF THE COMMON EEL 



BY DK. TIIEODOKK GILL, OF THE SMITHSOXIAX INSTITUTION. 

 WASHINGTON, D. C. 



Dr. (iill: Mr. President and o-entlemen of the society: I 

 am quite unprepared to speak now as I liad no expectation of 

 being called upon, but I will make a few remarks. 



As you are all aware, the eel has never been found with de- 

 veloped ovaries or spermaries, in fresh water. The absence of 

 such organs, so cons])ic-uous in most fishes, has led to some re- 

 markable conjectures and hy]3otheses respecting the nature of 

 the generation of eels. 



One of the most persistent of those hypotheses is that they 

 were generated from mud, from putrefaction. That has ])een 

 maintained from early times and has been persisted in l)v edu- 

 cated men as recently as two centuries ago. Sir Tliomas Browne 

 was one of the first to cast a (lou])t upon the allegation that eels 

 were generated from mud. In contradiction Augustus Brown, 

 a writer of the same ]jeriod, treated the allegation as being- 

 axiomatic. In other words, he said, speaking of the generation 

 of mice from Egy])tian mud. upon which Sir Thomas Browne 

 had cast a doul)t. tliat it was as true and could be relied on as 

 certainly as, among otlier things, the generation of the eel from 

 mud. Of course, such a l)elief has long since ceased among edu- 

 cated people, but still persists among many of the uneducated. 

 It has taken a long time to come to tlie truth; in fact the true 

 conclusion has been reached only within the last two years. 

 (The finishing touches, indeed, have not yet been made, and 

 probably will not be made for a long while.) I wish now to 

 refer especially to the late discoveries of Johannas Schmidt and 

 Dr. Gemsoe. 



It is still believed by many persons, as you are all aware, 

 that eels do breed in fresh water; that they must breed there 

 because eels are found in places that are apparently inaccessible ; 

 but of course all such ideas must be discarded at once, as there 

 is no basis for the belief that eels, under any circumstances, ever 



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