272 PEOSE HALIEUTICS. 



spicable fare, and we particularly commend to their no- 

 tice tlie head and its appurtenances: Bloch recommends 

 to boil them with a bit of bacon to heighten the flavour. 

 One precaution however should be taken before cookiag ; 

 the roe must be entirely removed, as a very small frag- 

 ment will produce serious internal derangement. One 

 heautontimoroumenos, yclept Antoninus Gazius, under- 

 took, as a warning to mankind, to eat two mouthfuls of 

 barbel roe, and not more than as many hours after the 

 experiment was attacked with symptoms as alarming as 

 those produced by Asiatic cholera, — racking pains and 

 purging, cold extremities, and deHquium ; and in the se- 

 cond stage of his illness he experienced such a prolonged 

 state of vital prostration that his friends fairly gave him 

 up :* Gesner reports that he had seen cases as ugly : 

 yet in spite of these recitals, this pernicious roe (which 

 Machaon would hardly have ventured to prescribe to 

 Ajax as a spring aperient) was at no remote period mer- 

 cilessly used, not in camp practice, but in civil service, 

 and figured as a remedy ia foreign codexes and home 

 pharmacopoeias. 



Cypkinus Gobio (Gudgeon). 



The length of the cyprinus gobio seldom exceeds eight 

 inches. Both its size and plumpness are correctly given 

 by Ausonius in the following lines : — 



Tu quoque flimmieas inter memorande coiortes 

 Gobi, non major geminis sine pollioe palmia, 

 PrEepingTiis, teres, ovipari congestior alvo. 



Ovid also speaks of its smooth spineless back, as con- 

 trasted with the bristling lophoderm of the perch, which 



* We are bound to mention tbe e contra evidence of Bloch, 

 who gave his family and ate himself a considerable quantity of 

 barbel roe without any disagreeable results. 



