526 
C Y P R 
in Siiefia, at Leirfic, and at Jena and by the fucceflive 
honours to which he arrived, of dodtor in the lefler col¬ 
lege of princes, in 1675, of profefibr in phyfics in the 
following year, of dodfor in the great college of princes 
in 1679, and of dodtor and profefibr of theology in 1699 
and 1710, appears to have diftinguifhed himfelf with 
eminence among his contemporaries. He died in 1723. 
.Among his learned labours, which maintain their place 
in modern collections, are, 1, Continuatio Hijloria Jacra 
Animalium Wolfgmgi Franzii. 2. Hijloria Caroli. Gujlavi. 
3. De Laniena Parijienje. 4. De Senj'u & Cognitione Bruto- 
rum. 5. De Vocatione Hominum univerfali. 6. De Analyji 
Fidci Chrijliana. 7. De Baptifmo Profelytorum Judaico. 8. 
Orationes, 9. Programmata. 10. Dijertationes . n. Dif- 
putationes, &c. 
CYPRI'NUS, [ the Carp; in ichthyology, a genus 
of the order of abdominale, or thofe fifhes which have 
the ventral fins behind the pedtorals. The generic cha- 
radter of the carp, is, according to Bloch, that the teeth 
are placed in the gullet, or at the entrance of the intefli- 
nal canal; according to Linnaeus, that the gill-mem¬ 
brane is three-rayed. The fifhes included in this genus 
are called white jijh in general, but by fyflematic authors 
they are called carp. The head is flattened on the Tides, 
and the body covered with fhining fcales. Some of the 
fpecies are narrow and long ; others are wide, fhort, and 
thin; which has given an idea to Tome ichthyologifts of 
dividing them into the wide and the narrow carp. The 
firft have generally a fmall head, the others a large one. 
They have feven fins : one on the back, two on the 
bread, two on the belly, one behind the anus, and one 
at the tail, or extremity of the body. The forehead is 
blackifh, and large; the back arched, black or greenifh ; 
the Tides and belly of a filvery colour, but in Tome fpe¬ 
cies yellow. The opening of the gills is wide, the co¬ 
vering to which is compofed of three long laminae, of 
which the upper is the larged. The nodrils are two 
apertures divided by a fkin ; the front apertures are 
round, the others oval. The lips are cartilaginous co¬ 
vered with a thick fkin, and form a round aperture when 
the mouth is open. Thefe fifli properly have no tongue; 
that which has the appearance of one is only a gridly 
fubdance formed by the union of the gills on each fide. 
In the throat are fome fmall uneven bones, which Terve 
to retain the food the animal defigns to fwallow. This 
fifli has no domach properly fo called; the intedinal 
canal begins near the throat, where it is wided, and ends 
at the anus : this canal has in general but two finuofities 
or bendings, though in fome fpecies it has three, and 
even four. The air-bladder is white, fhining, round, 
and divided into two unequal parts. The ovaries are 
double, as well as the roe. The time of fpawning is 
commonly in April and May; but all the fifh of the 
fame fpecies do not fpawn at the fame time, the larger 
fpawn earlier than the fmaller. The food of this fifh is 
clay, chalk, worms, aquatic infeCts, and thofe of plants, 
or from dunghills; fome alfo devour fmaller fifli. As 
their food is fo various, this fhould be attended to in 
angling for the different fpecies. They in general in¬ 
habit lakes and rivers ; fome haunt marfhy places ; and 
others make confiderable voyages. In fpring they quit 
the lakes for the rivers which run into them ; there they 
cad there fpawn, after which they return. But thefe 
fifh are more particularly natural to the frefh waters of 
the fouthern partsof Europe : they were unknown to the 
Greeks and Romans, except indeed the common carp, 
which is mentioned by Ariflotle and Pliny. Some of 
thefe fifh were brought to England from the fouth of 
Europe, and are now naturalized in our frelh-water ponds; 
but tiie farther north they are carried, as Beckman ob- 
lerves, they become the fmaller. 
I. Barbies about the mouth. 1. Cyprinus carpio, the 
common carp. Specific character, nine rays in the anal 
fin, barbies or cirri four, the fecond ray of the dorfal fin 
ferrated behind. Theie are fixteen rays in the peCto- 
I N U S. 
ral fin, nine in the ventral, nine in the anal, nineteen in 
the tail, and twenty-four in the dorfal. The head is 
large, the front broad, of a deep yellow green colour; 
the cheeks are blue. The eye is entirely black, except 
a yellow line which furrounds the pupil. The lips, with 
which they make a noife in eating, are firong, flefhy, and 
yellow ; there are two barbies of the fame colour at the 
corner of the mouth, and above two others, fhorter, 
black, and lefs obfervable. The fcales which cover the 
body are large, and flriped lengthvvife ; the back forms 
a flackened bow, and is of a greenifh blue colour; it is 
fharp above the fin, and rounded below ; the lateral line 
is masked with fmall black dots, making a flight Curve- 
Near the belly the Tides are yellow, varying to blue and 
black; clofe to the belly they are whitifli, but yellow 
near the tail. The dorfal fin is blue, the ventral violet, 
the anal a red brown ; the fin of the tail, which is bifur¬ 
cated alfo, is violet colour, edged with black. 
It appears pretty certain that there were no carp m 
England in the eleventh century, at lead they do not oc¬ 
cur in the Anglo-Saxon Dictionary of Aelfric, who, in 
1051, died archbifliop of York. We are allured, like- 
wife, that they were fird brought into the kingdom in 
the fifth year of the reign of Henry VIII. or in 1514, by 
Leonard Mafcal of Plumded in Suflex; yet there is an 
earlier defeription of it, in the Book of St. Alban’s, 
printed in 1496. What we read in the Linnaean Sydem, 
that thefe fifli were fird brought to England about the 
year 1600, is certainly erroneous. 
Denmark is indebted for thefe fifli to that celebrated 
flatefman Peter Oxe, who introduced them into the king¬ 
dom as well as cray-fidi, and other obje&s for the table. 
He died in the year 1575. We are told that thefe fifh 
were brought from Italy to Prullia, where they are at 
prefent very abundant, by a nobleman whofe name is not 
mentioned. This fervice, however, may be aferibed with 
more probability to the upper burggrave, Cafpar von 
Nodiz, who died in 1588, and who, in the middle of the 
fixteenth century, fird fent carp to Pruflia from his edate 
in Siiefia, and caufed them to be put into the large pond 
at Arenfberg, not far from Cretizburg. As a memorial 
of this circumdance, the figure of a carp, cut in done, 
was fliewn formerly over a door at the cadle of Arenf- 
berg. This colony mud have been very numerous in the 
year 1535, for at that period carp were fent from Korngf. 
berg to Wilda, where the archduke Albert then refided. 
At prefent carp are tranfported from Dantzic and Ko- 
nigfberg to Ruflia, Sweden, and Denmark. It appears 
probable, that thefe fifh after that period became every 
where known and edeemed, as eating fifh in Lent and on 
fad-days was among Chriflians conlidered to be a reli¬ 
gious duty, and that on this account they endeavoured 
to have ponds docked with them in every country, be- 
caufe no fpecies can be fo eafily bred in thefe refervoirs. 
They abound in all fmooth waters, in lakes and ponds; 
the tade differs according to the waters they live in ; 
hence they are didinguifhed into river, lake, and pond, 
carp. The fird are reckoned the bed, the lad the word; 
but the bed of all are thoYe who breed in a lake or pond 
eroded by a dream which furnifhes a continual change of 
frefh water. Thofe who underdand them know by their 
colour from what waters they come : thofe from rivers 
and lakes are yellower, thofe taken out of ponds greener 
or blacker ; the lad have alfo generally a tade from the 
mud ; but this they will lofe, if put, fome weeks before 
eating them, into clear water, or rather if confined in a 
trough or veffel placed in the dream of a river. 
Of all the finny tribe, the carp is mod tenacious of life : 
when placed in a net wrapped in wet mofs, and hung in 
damp cellars, it will fubfid for a fortnight. This faCt 
is fo well atteded by experiment, that a method of fat¬ 
tening this fifh has been adopted, which is founded upon 
it. The net is from time to time dipped in water, and 
the fifh crammed with wheat-bread foaked in milk; and, 
by this management, it becomes in a lhort.time not only 
jnuca 
