Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/642

 EEL

and both fay, that the parts of the fexes may be difcovered, on a careful rafpeeKon, and fome found to be males, and others females; but thefe parts are, in both fexes, they lay, buried in a large quantity of fat, and they are of opinion, that hence proceeded the miftake of Anftotle and his followers, who, not being able to find thcfe parts, concluded that they did not exift at all.

Among thofe who allow the Eel to be produced like other animals, from animal parents, which have the fexes, feme are of opinion that they are viviparous, and others, that they are oviparous ; but a gentleman of our nation, Mr. Chart- wynd, feems to have determined this great controverfy, by obferving, that if the aperture under the belly of the Eel, which looks red in the month of May, be cut at that time, the young Eels will be feen to come forth alive, after the operation. Mr. Allen alfo affirms them to be viviparous ; but his obfervation concerning the place of their conception, does not appear analogous to that care and induftry of nature, in providing convenient receptacles for the fcetus ; neither is it confonant to reafon, that when nature has provided an uterus in all animals, not only the viviparous, but the oviparous, and even in infeds, that the Eel and the fwordnih mould be without this part, as Bartholine fuppofes, much lefs that the guts, which are appointed by nature for the fecretion of nou- rifhment, and expulfion of the fceces, and which are in con- tinual motion to anfwer thefe purpofes, mould be deftined in one fingle animal to the reception of a fcetus. This gentle- man mentions a flender gland lying near the bowels, and, in all probability, this was the uterus. For Mr. Lewenhoeck, who took much pains in examining this filh, fays, that he found an uterus, not only in fome, but in every Eel he ex- amined, and he therefore concludes Eels to be hermaphro- dites ; nay, he goes fo far as to fuppofe, that there are no male parts of generation, of the common form of thofe in other animals, but that the office of thefe is performed by a liquor analogous to the male feed of animals, which is con- tained in certain glands, fituated on the infide of the uterus itfelf.

Nature having, in all animals, hitherto differed, been found to have provided in the females not only an uterus, but alfo two tubes, which, from Fallopius, the perfon who firft dif- covered them, are called Fallopian tubes, and which ferve to convey the ovum from the ovary into the uterus, the fyftem of Mr. Allen, and thofe others who fuppofe the bowels the feat of generation in Eels, is rendered highly improbable, by the want of fuch parts as thefe. This gentleman obferves, that he had feen the embryos within the parent Eel, both in the egg and animal ftate ; that the eggs were always found to lie on the outfide of the interlines, and the young Eels within them. Now, as we have no idea how thefe embryos fhould get within the gut, from an egg on the outfide, any more than how an egg fhould come in that place, the whole fyftem of this gentleman, though favoured by many people, feems built on fo bad a foundation, as not to merit any longer the countenance of the world. It is probable, that all his ob- fervations were founded upon errors, for it is a very common cafe to find Eels fubjefl to worms in their guts, fuch as we have, and of all the kinds that we are fubje<Sr. to ; fome of thefe might be eafily miftaken by the author of this fyftem for embryo Eels ; and poffibly the eggs he defcribes on the outfides of the bowels, might be no other than fmall lumps of fat.

The conger, or fea Eel, ufually grows to a very great big- nefs; but the common frefh water Eel feems intended to have been limited to a certain fmall fize ; yet, at times, there have been caught fome which have greatly exceeded this their feemingly ftated limit. The common fize of the conger, or fea Eel, at full growth, is the length of nine or ten foot, and the thicknefs of a man's thigh ; and, when of this fize, they will weigh from thirty to forty or fifty pounds : Though Salvian fays, they ufually do not exceed thirty. Strabo tells us of fome of them growing to eighty pound weight ; but, by what we fee of them, there is reafon to believe, that be- tween twenty-five and thirty pounds weight feems their natu- ral Hint, at full growth, and that thofe which fo much ex- ceed it are like the monltrous common Eels, accidentally en- creafed to a preternatural bulk. Pliny and Solinus talk of Eels of thirty foot long; but the largeft we find, even of our monftrous ones, come greatly fhort of that. The conger always has a fort of barbs; and an Eel that has not thofe, may always be afluredly known by that character alone, to be a true frefh water Eel, though ever fo large. Of this kind the Thames, and fome other rivers about London, feenr to have furnifhed the largeft of any part of Europe. Mr. Dale com- memorates the taking of two of thefe, in the philofophical trcnfactions ; the one near Crickfea in Eflex, was five foot five inches long, and meafured twenty-two inches round. The weight of this was about twenty pounds, which is the flint that Aldrovand gives to the frefh water Eel, faying, that they fometimes, tho' very rarely, do come up to this, but that they never exceed it. The other was caught near Mai- don, and was feven feet long, twenty-feven inches in circum- ference, and its weight was thirty pounds. Out of its back and belly there were taken five pounds of fat. This creature 4

EEL

feemed to have been brought down the rivet by the violence of fome land flood, and was in a wounded condition when taken by the fifhermen, having a hurt upon its back, which it feemed to have got in paffing through fome mill. Both this and the other were evidently frefh river Eels : And, long fince thefe, fo lately indeed as in this prefent year 1748, one of thefe large Eels was taken at Limehoufe, where it was left on fhore by the tide ; it was five foot fix inches long, and as thick as a man's thigh ; its weight was twenty feven pounds. The fine filver Eel may be catched with many forts of baits, and with great eafe to the fifher. Powdered beef is the very beft bait for many places ; next after this are lobworms, min- nows, or other fmall fifh, and, in the place of thefe, chickens guts, and even fifh garbage will do. The Eel, for the fix winter months, remains conftantly buried in the mud ; and even in warmer weather, this fifh feldom appears above the bottom by day-light, fo that night is the beft time for fifhing for it. The hooks may be bated, and thrown into the water at night, and the ends of the lines faftened to the fhore ; and one general line may have a great many other fhorter ones, with each its hook tied to it, depending on it. When thefe are laid in over night, they may be left to themfelves after- wards ; and when they are taken up in the morning, the Eel: will be found hun£. A very good method for large Eels is this. Take five or fix fines, each of them about fixteen yards long, and at every two yards fpace make a noofe, and at every one of thefe noofes hang on a hook, faftened to a fhort line of ftrong filk ; fome ufe wire, but filk will anfwer the purpofe, and give the fifh lefs fufpicion, bait the hooks with millers thumbs, loaches, minnows, and fmall gudgeons ; let the long line be drawn quite acrofs the deepeft part of the brook or river, and the two ends faftened down, with a peg driven faft into the ground on each fide : Thefe are to be laid in at night, and the fportfman muft either fit up and watch them, or elfe be up very early to take them up, for otherwife many of the Eels, which were hung, will be got away again ; and what is moft provoking is, that thofe are the largeft which thus efcape.

With proper management and attendance, there will feldom tail being three or four Eels on each line. When there are very large Eels in any place, the beft bait is a moderate lized roach : This muft be faftened to a ftrong fingle night-line, and the hook muft be hid in the mouth of the bait. Eels have been obferved to move directly upwards, and fo to get over perpendicular obftacles feveral feet above the furface of the water. They Aide thus upwards with as great eafe, feemingly, as if they had been going along the level ground. See Phil. Tranf. N». 48a. Sed. 8.

The dried livers and galls of Eels are recommended by Mr. Boyle to affift women in a hard labour. Bajle, Works abr. Vol. 1. p. 93. Indian Eel, Anguilla Indica, in zoology, the name of the Eaft Indian Eel, of which there are two kinds, the one all over fpotted with brown, and the other of a fine yellow colour, ftreaked with red. The flefh of this is not accounted whole- fome. Ray's Ichthyogr. app. p. 3. Sea Eel, Anguilla Marina, a fifh common under holes of rocks, about the fhores in many parts of the Eaft Indies. It is of a dufky brown colour, variegated with rhomboidal fpots, not unlike thofe on the fkins of fnakes. The anterior part of its body is thin and flender, the hinder part very thick; its nofe is long, its mouth large, and commonly gaping open,

and its teeth very ftiarp.

but

very

fmall. It grows extremely

fat, and is very wholefome and well taftcd ; yet thofe who kill a number of them are .aid to be affcaed with tremors, and fometimes with a drowfinefs, which however goes off without farther mifchief. Ray's Ichthyogr. app. p. 3. Mierofcopic Eels in four pajle. The long bodied animalcules, difcovered by the microfcope in vinegar, four pafte, and many other fubjefts, have, from their figure, been generally diftinguifhed from the reft of the mierofcopic animalcules, by the name of Eels. Thefe, and the other kinds, have been, by the moft judicious naturalifts, fuppofed to be pro- duced of the eggs of other animalcules of the fly kind, floating in the air. But thofe in pafte are difcovered to be viviparous animals, producing living creatures of their own fhapej whereas, were the ufual opinion juft, they ought, according to the common courfe of nature, in the larger infe&s, to be in the condition of flies, while in the ftate of maggots, or butterflies in that of caterpillars, never producing their own like, nefs in thefe ftates, but after feveral changes pafling into flies. On cutting one of thefe pafte Eels in two acrofs the middle, a long and flender tube is feen to fhoot out from each of rhe divided ends, and a number of feeming ova iffue from this ; but thefe, examined ftriflly, appear to be living Eels of different growths, and all included in their proper membranes ; fome move themfelves but flowly, while others coil and uncoil themfelves pretty brifkly, and the moft mature are feen to make ftrong efforts toward the difengaging them- felves of their enveloping membranes, and at length lucceed, and fwim at liberty, like their parent animal. The tube thruft out each way, on dividing the body, is properly the uterus of the animal. This, in the larger Eels, is eafily feen to be full of dark fpots, which are the embryo Eels, and

thefe