102 FISH CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
eries in that province, offered to transmit communications to 
Berlin, and in 1878, in the January number of the German Fish- 
ery Gazette, he published a detailed and very interesting report 
of his proceedings. He wrote, among other things, that it was 
quite beyond his expectation that this announcement would 
have found its way into nearly all the German journals between 
the Rhine and the Weichsel, and from the Alps to the sea. The 
number of letters which he received first rejoiced him, then sur- 
prised him, finally terrified him, so that at last he was obliged to 
refuse to attend to the communications. He had learned at 
Berlin that an equal number of communications from all parts 
of Germany had been received, sent directly to the address of 
Professor Virchow. Objects which professed to be young eels 
cut out of the parents, but which were really thread worms, 
were sent to him by dozens; the most incredible stories, usually 
from women, about great thick eggs which they had found in 
eels, were received by him. A witty Berliner communicated to 
him in a packet sent by express the information that the eel pro- 
blem was now happily solved since a lady eel in Berlin had 
given birth to twins. Finally Herr Dallmer found himself com- 
pelled to insert the following notice in the Schleswiger Nach- 
richten: ‘Since the German Fischerei-Verein has offered a pre- 
mium for the first gravid eel, the desire to obtain the prize, cur- 
iosity, or the desire for knowledge has created so lively an 
interest upon this point that it might almost be called a revolu- 
, tion. I at one time offered, when necessary, to serve as an 
agent for communication, but since business has compelled me 
to be absent from home a great part of the time, I would 
urgently request that hereafter packages should be sent direct 
to Professor Virchow in Berlin. I feel myself obliged to inform 
the public upon certain special points. The premium is offered 
for a gravid eel, not for the contents of such an eel, since if only 
these were sent it would be uncertain whether they were actually 
taken from an eel. The eel must always be sent alone; the ma- 
jority of senders have hitherto sent me only the intestines or the 
supposed young of the eel, which were generally intestinal 
worms; the eel itself they have eaten; nevertheless the prize of 
50 marks has been expected by nearly all senders, etc. By this 
