12 PETRO 
in the Don, the Oka, and the Volga. Their fpawning- 
time is in the month of June. They grow to a confider- 
able fize, are very greedy, and multiply fall: the filurus 
and the pike are its enemies. 
As our manners are probably ft ill far ffiort of that fen- 
fuality and extravagance which diftinguiffied the ancient 
Romans, we do not hear fo many fanciful encomiums on 
particular diffies, nor fuch enormous fums paid to pro¬ 
cure them. Accordingly, the lamprey, known among 11s, 
has obtained no very extraordinary character. It is 
differently eftimated, according to the feafon it was taken, 
or the place where it was fed. In Hamplhire they are 
very little regarded. The beft feafon for them is in the 
months of March, April, and May; as they are more firm 
immediately after their arrival in the rivers from the fait 
water, than afterwards. Towards the fummer, and in 
the hot weather, after they have depofited their fpawn, 
they are obferved to be much wafted ; they become flabby, 
and bad eating. Thofe caught in feveral of the rivers in 
Ireland, the people will not venture to touch; and through¬ 
out the whole of Scotland they are held in deteftation : 
while thofe taken by the Englifft in the Severn, are con- 
fidered as the moft delicate of all fiffi whatever. At a 
very early period, indeed, we find the lamprey was reck¬ 
oned a great delicacy by the Englifh. That it is a heavy 
furfeiting food, the experience of one of our monarchs 
fatally teftified; for the death of Henry I. was occafioned 
by eating too plentiful a meal of this fid). Notwithftanding 
this accident, they l'eem to have continued in high efteem, 
becaufe we find Henry IV. granting proteftion to fuch 
fhips as brought over lampreys for the table of his royal 
confort; and his fuccefl'or ifluing out a warrant to Wil¬ 
liam of Nantes, for fupplying him and his army with 
there fifties, wherever they might happen to march. In 
proof of the ancient predilection of the Englifti for this 
fiffi, it is a cuftom from time immemorial, (and ftill con¬ 
tinued, Mr. Pennant fays,) for the city of Gloucefter, to 
prefent annually Ins' majefty with a rich lamprey pie. As 
the gift is made at Chriftmas, it is with great difficulty 
the corporation can procure any frefti lampreys at that 
early feafon, though they offer a film far exceeding their 
ufual price. In countries where there are plenty, they 
firft broil them, then put them up in calks with vinegar 
and fpice, for exportation. They are c&ught pretty plen¬ 
tifully in England at the fame time with the falmon and 
ftiad. 
In the interior conformation, this fifti differs materially 
from many others. The aperture of the mouth is oblong; 
the teeth are hollow, not placed in the jaws, but in fleffiy 
cafes, or capfules as they are termed by Bloch. The 
tongue is very different in ftiape, being formed like a half¬ 
moon, with teeth like a file at the edges. Behind the 
tongue begins the alimentary canal, which goes ftraight 
to the anus, having neither fmuofuies, appendages, nor 
folds, to retard the paffage of the food. 
A vulgar error, ariling from inattentive infpeftion, and 
total ignorance of the nature of the animal, is faid fome- 
times to prevail ; viz. that the lamprey is furnifhed with 
nine eves on each fide : this miftake appears to have exci¬ 
ted unufual indignation in fir Thomas Brown, who, in 
his Pfeudodoxia Epidemica, thus expreffes himfelf on the 
fubjeft : “Whether lampries have nine eyes, as is received, 
we durft refer it unto Polyphemus himfelf, who had but 
one, to judge it. An error concerning eyes, occafi¬ 
oned by the error of eyes ; deduced from the appearance 
of divers cavities or holes on either fide, which fome call 
eyes that carelefsly behold them ; and is not only refutable 
by experience, but alfo repugnant unto reafon. For, be- 
fides the montrofity they fallen unto nature, in contriving 
many eyes, who hath made but two unto any animal, 
that is one of each fide, according to the divifion of the 
brain; it were a fuperfiuous inartificial aft to place lo 
many in one plane; for the two extremes would fuffici- 
ently perform the office of fight without the help of the 
intermediate eyes, and behold as much as all the feven 
M Y Z O N.- 
together. For the vifible bafe of an objeft would be 
defined by thefe two; and the middle eyes, although they 
behold the fame thing, yet could they not behold fo much 
thereof as thefe; fo were it no advantage unto man to 
have a third eye between thofe two he hath already; and 
the fiftion of Argus feems more reafonable than this; for 
though he had many eyes, yet were they placed in cir¬ 
cumference and pofitions of advantage; and fo are they 
placed in feveral lines in fpiders. Again, thefe cavities 
which men call eyes are feated out of the head, and where 
the gills of other fifli are placed ; containing no organs 
of fight, nor having any communication with the brain ; 
and that, being placed (as Galen obferveth) in the upper 
part of the body, for the fitter fituation of the eyes, and 
conveniency required unto fight, it is not reafonable to 
imagine that they are any where elfe, or deferve that name 
which are feated in other parts. And therefore we relin- 
quifti as fabulous what is delivered of Jlei'nophthalmi, or 
men with eyes in their bread; and, when it is faid by So¬ 
lomon, a wife man’s eyes are in his head, it is to be taken 
in a fecond fenfe, and affbrdeth no objeftion. True it is 
that the eyes of animals are feated with fome difference ; 
but in (anguineous animals in the head, and that more 
forward than the ear, or hole of hearing. In quadrupeds, 
in regard of the figure of their heads, they are placed at 
fome diftance ; in latiroftrous and flat-billed birds they 
are more laterally feated ; and therefore, when they look 
intently, they turn one eye upon the objeft; and can 
convert their heads to fee before and behind, arid to be¬ 
hold two oppofite points at once. But at a more eafy 
diftance are they fituated in man, and in the fame cir¬ 
cumference with the ear; for, if one foot of the compafs 
be placed upon the crown, a circle deferibed thereby will 
interfeft or pafs over both ears. The error in this con¬ 
ceit confifts in the ignorance of thefe cavities, and their 
proper ufe in nature ; for this is a particular difpofure of 
parts, and a pecu liar conformation whereby thefe holes 
and fluices fupply the defeft of gills, and are affifted by 
the conduit in the head ; for, like cetaceous animals and 
whales, the lamprey hath a fiftula, fpout, or pipe, at the 
back part of the head, whereat it fpurts out the water; 
nor is it only Angular in this formation, but alfo in many 
other.” 
Among the cartilaginous fifties none is fo deftitute of 
all appearance of real bone as the lamprey, in which the 
1 'pine itfelfis no other than a merefoft cartilage, without 
any procefles or protuberances whatfoever. Among other 
particulars in its anatomy, it is remarkable that the heart, 
inftead of being incloled in a foft pericardium, as in other 
animals, is guarded by a ftrong cartilaginous' one: the 
liver, which is of an oblong form, is of a fine grafs-green 
colour, fomewhat deeper in the female fiffi, and may be 
ufed for the purpofe of a pigment. 
Thefe fiffi, from the peculiarity of their conformation, 
generally fwim with their body on a level with the furface 
of the water; and, it is faid, can eaiily be fuftocated, by 
being itnmerfed in it for any confiderable time. From 
this circumftance, it is probable that they require a con- 
ftant fupply of air for breathing, and that they are poffeffed 
of lungs, though no naturalift has obferved them in giv¬ 
ing an account of the vifeera of thefe animals, Among 
this tribe, copulation is performed ventribus commiffis, 
contrary to the manner of the greater number of fifties. 
When engaged in the bufinefs ot procreation, they gene¬ 
rally frequent the (hallow water, where their habits admit 
of being eafily examined. The female, when ready to 
fpawn, digs a hole in the mud, where (lie depolits her ova; 
and in this operation, the power of fuftion, which we 
have already deferibed is of Angular advantage; for, 
ftiould ffie inget with a (tone, though of confiderable bulk, 
(lie rakes and carries it out of the way. After the ova 
are excluded and buried in the excavation thus formed, 
the parent remains in the neighbourhood till the young 
are quickened into life. She is then fieen, with her nu¬ 
merous family playing around her; which, as foon as 
