COMBER. 
197 
some amusement to the reader, if there be introduced to him 
a little sprinkling of rrhat was known as science in the middle 
ages, as handed down by one of the then shining lights of the 
world. Speaking of the medical virtues of some creatures, 
Albertus Magnus says of the Foca, which is the Fuka, Phykis, 
or Phykos, (not Phokos or Phokee,) of Gesner,— the Sea 
Perch, — that it is a well-known fish, called by the Chaldeans 
Daulubur, and by the Greeks Labor. Take its tongue and a 
small portion of its heart, and infuse them in water, and the 
mixture thus made will cause a multitude of fishes to gather 
together. Place the same under your arm, and if you have 
a °trial at law it will make the judge your friend. 
largest size of this fish is about ten inches long , the 
body compressed, deep. Gill-covers and body covered with 
ciliated scales, which adhere firmly. Under jaw longestj teeth 
in both, and in the palate, numerous, irregular, sharp, and 
incurved; the tongue small and loose. Eyes high in the 
head. First plate of the gill-covers with the border serrated, 
the second with two (in the female one) obscure spines, 
scarcely to be distinguished, except in shape, from the scales. 
Gill membrane with seven rays, curved, the uppermost broad. 
The dorsal fin begins opposite the ventrals, the first portion 
having spinous rays, the second, which passes to near the tail, 
expanded, with soft rays; anal fin opposite the second portion 
of the dorsal. Pectoral fins longer and more pointed than in 
most of this family of fishes. Tail a little concave. Lateral 
line nearer the back. Colour of the back a rich brown, in 
many examples throwing off bands which pass to the belly. 
The sides a pale red, saffron-coloured, or yellow, usually 
fainter below. Two or three waved parallel whitish or faint 
blue lines pass along the sides from head to tail, except that 
the lowest ends near the posterior border of the anal fin. On 
the sill-cover are several faint blue stripes running obliquely 
downward and backward. The fins are striped lengthwise, 
with red and yellow; the tail often mottled or striped with 
the same colours. Pectorals and ventrals yellow. 
Fin rays — dorsal ten and fourteen, pectoral fifteen, ventral six, 
anal two and seven, caudal seventeen. 
