264 PEOgE HALIEUTICS. 



and milk, they soon fatten surprisingly, and become fit 

 for table. The cat-like vitality of carp has subjected 

 them to an extraordinary mode of evisceration, unparal- 

 leled, we believe, in the history of fish. 



Unfortunately for their well-being, they have large 

 roes, which make fine caviare; a circumstance well known 

 to the Jews of Constantinople in Belon's day, who, de- 

 barred by Levitical prohibition the use of caviare proper 

 made from the sturgeon, were glad to find so good a 

 legal substitute in that manufactured from this fish — a 

 scaly, and therefore perfectly orthodox species. We do 

 not pretend to determine whether it was to satisfy the 

 palates of these Shylocks, that the ascertained powers of 

 endurance in C. carpio first led to the experiment of ex- 

 tracting the sexual organs, or whether the Turks had 

 practised the art before ; but the results obtained by it 

 were very remarkable. It was known long ago that pike 

 might be opened, the belly afterwards sewed up, and the 

 fish restored to the pond, without any material detri- 

 ment to health or longevity; but Samuel PuU, about 

 eighty years ago, proceeded a step further : he cut open 

 some male and female carp, entirely removed the mUts 

 and ovaries, and substituting pieces of felt, reunited the 

 wounds by suture, and replaced his patients in their 

 stew. Here he found that they not only recovered their 

 strength, but grew rapidly ; and after awhile became so 

 obese and heavy, as to induce him to try them at table, 

 when the flavoui' of these castrated fish proved superior 

 in delicacy to carp that had never been felted. His ob- 

 servations were sent to Sir Hans Sloane, the then Presi- 

 dent of the Royal Society, by whom they were commu- 

 nicated to the members. The experiments were after- 

 wards repeated on a larger scale, and with the same 

 results. 



The sexual organization of the cyprinus carpio is re- 

 markable in several other particulars : besides males and 



