HOW TO PEEPAEE EGGS. 9 



for the last fifty years, I have examined the 

 roes of the ordinary fish used for human 

 food, and am enabled to place before you the 

 following table, and also the specimens them- 

 selves, to show what an enormous number of 

 eggs are deposited by fish. 



But I must tell you how these calculations 

 are made, that you may repeat them for your- 

 selves. I get the mass of the roe from the 

 fishmonger, and these have been kindly 

 and chiefly presented to me by Mr. Grove 

 of Charing Cross, and Mr. Townsend of 

 Agar Street. I make a few cuts in the 

 membrane which contains the roe with a 

 knife, and then plunge them into water, 

 which is at the moment of immersion posi- 

 tively at the boiling point : being composed of 

 albumen, the eggs obey the natural law and 



