18 
BARBEL. 
continent of Europe, but it appears to be common in the south, 
although it finds no place in the ancient works of Greek and 
Eoman writers. Ausonius alone among the last-named refers to 
it; but this he does in a slighting manner, as being (for the 
table,) best in the failing portion of its age. Yet there is some 
difference of opinion in this respect, and Dr. Badham, in his 
amusing book of fish-tattle, among others, speaks favourably of 
it; but this gentleman adds, that the precaution should be 
taken before cooking of removing the roe, as a very small 
fragment will produce serious internal derangement. This indeed 
was known at least so Ion" since as the time of Gesner, if not 
referred to in the Book of St. Albans, and has been experienced 
since on numerous occasions, so that the rule regarding it 
should be to abstain ; and yet it is reported to have been eaten 
sometimes with impunity. But as it is known that several 
symptoms of a choleraic kind have been occasioned by eating 
the generally wholesome roe of the Y’driting, so it is probable 
that the generally unwholesome roe of the Barbel may occasion- 
ally be found safe. Life should not be risked in such a 
hazardous way; nor in another matter concerning this fish, 
regarding which we extract the following note from the already- 
quoted Book of St. Albans, in the quaint words and antique 
spelling of the writer: — “The Barbyll is a swete fysshe, but it is 
a quasy meete and a j)eryllous for mannys body. For comynly 
he yeuyth an introduxion to ye Febres. And yf he be eten 
rawe, he maye be cause of mannys dethe; whyche hath oft be 
seen.” 
The advice here given concerning the eating of raw fish 
will appear less strange when we refer to the custom of the 
Israelites in the time of Moses, of eating the flesh of the lamb 
in an uncooked condition; the indulgence in such a luxury 
being specially forbidden (Exodus, c. 12,) in the case of the 
lamb of the Passover. Again, in the book entitled “The 
Governayle of Flelthe,” printed by Caxton, are these lines: — 
“For helth of body cover for cold thy head, 
Eat no raw meat, take good heed thereto.’’ 
But such a relative custom of our ancestors would not perhaps 
have been remembered but for this reference to it in the case 
of the Barbel; and yet with the light thus afforded to us, we 
