l6 
OF FISHES IN GENERAL. 
theory, fpeculation, and conjefture. Hence we are no 
fooncr free of one difficulty, than we are met by another 
equally perplexing and infurmountable. It has long 
been a queftion, among philofophers, whether filhes are 
produced by fpontaneous generation *. That they are, 
an ancient naturalift pretends to have proved by his own 
experiments and obfervations f . There is, fays he, in 
the vicinity of Pifa, and furrounded, on every fide, by 
hills, a place, into which the waters of no fountain, 
ftream, or lake, ever flowed ; a place, which no moifture, 
except the rain from the clouds, ever watered. A few 
days before my arrival at this fpot, a copious Ihower of 
rain had overflowed it with water, and nature herfelf 
had fupplied it with filhes, among which vaft numbers 
of carp Were obferved. The fame thing, he adds, is 
feen in many pools in France, into which no flock, or 
original, of the many various filhes they contain, was 
ever placed. 
Another philofopher has adopted the fame opinion 
concerning the fpontaneous production of filh ; becaufe, 
in ponds newly dug out, filhes have been obferved dur- 
ing the firft year ; and, in fucceeding ones, many other 
different kinds, although none had been originally tranf- 
ported thither J. It is a phenomenon in Nature, for 
which it is indeed difficult to account, but notwith- 
ftanding an incontrovertible fa£t, that in ftagnating pools 
occafioned by the rain in Bombay, which have no com,, 
nuinication with any river, or the fea, filhes are gene- 
rated, of which many perfons have eaten, and which, 
upon 
* Willoughby, lib. I. cap. ix. 
f Rondeletius de Pifcib. Jib* I. cap. ir. 
| Albejrtus magnus apud Gefnerum. , 
