478 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
the subject of this article. In most instances we find under 
the head of whitebait the statement that it is a small fish 
esteemed by Londoners_,'’'’ or a species of the genus Clupea."’^ 
The Encyclopaedia Britannica/^ The English Cyclopaedia/^ 
and Bees^ Universal Dictionary of the Arts/^ are we may say 
the only three from which any information may be gleaned^ 
and the account contained in the first of these is shamefully 
defective. In the article Fisheries/’ which in some respects 
is well compiled_, we find ample statistics of the quantity of 
fish_, mollusks^ and Crustacea annually consumed in England, 
but not the faintest mention is made of the whitebait. The 
article Ichthyology ” is just as barren, for our silvery friend 
is disposed of in three lines, which tell how admirably his 
relation to piscine society has been demonstrated by ]\Ir. 
Yarrell. The description in the English Cyclopaedia,” though 
brief, is at all events accurate, and, save that the history is 
omitted, is much to the j^oint. Finally, in Dr. Bees’ old 
Dictionary ■” we find the most voluminous account of any ; 
but, unhappily, it is a vast tissue of blunders and mis-state- 
ments from beginning to end. As far as we have been able 
to discover, the only sources of correct knowledge concerning 
the character and zoologic position of the whitebait are Mr. 
Yarrell’s History of British Fishes,” his memoirs in the 
Zoological Journal, and the Histoire Naturelle des Poissons ” 
of MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes ; but of these we shall speak 
more anon. 
Waiving the question as to when the whitebait was first 
observed and eaten, we may state that as early as the middle 
of the last century it was tolerably familiar to the London 
public. This has been especially pointed out by Pennant, 
who also informs us of a curious fact, viz., that at that period 
the eating of whitebait dinners was considered to be rather 
a vulgar and degrading habit. What extraordinary changes 
the tastes of a people undergo in the course of fifty or sixty 
years ! How fickle is fashion ! How capricious and irrational 
are her dictates ! One hundred years ago the individual who 
partook of whitebait after the manner of certain classes of the 
time, would have been tabooed by polite society — whilst, 
to-day, a whitebait dinner at Bichmond is regarded as a species 
of fashionable luxury. 
Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illos. 
Who knows but that in 1965 the common whelk, which now 
holds such an ignominious position upon the stalls of the 
East-end,” may be served up sautee clans sa glace , as a sort 
