LIBER IX · CAPUT 50
THE GENERATION OF FISHES
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
Quonam modo generent, desiderium et admiratio hominum differri non patitur. pisces attritu ventrium coeunt tanta celeritate, ut visum fallant, delphini et reliqua cete simili modo et paulo diutius. femina piscis coitus tempore marem sequitur, ventrem eius rostro pulsans; sub partu mares feminas similiter, ova vescentes earum. nec satis est generationi per se coitus, nisi editis ovis interversando mares vitale adsperserint virus. non omnibus id contingit ovis in tanta multitudine; alioqui replerentur maria et stagna, cum singuli uteri innumerabilia concipiant.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
The curiosity and wonder which have been excited in mankind by this subject, will not allow me any longer to defer giving an account of the generation of these animals. Fishes couple by rubbing their bellies against one another; an operation, however, that is performed with such extraordinary celerity as to escape the sight. Dolphins also, and other animals of the cetaceous kind, couple in a similar manner, though the time occupied in so doing is somewhat longer. The female fish, at the season for coupling, follows the male, and strikes against its belly with its muzzle; while the male in its turn, when the female is about to spawn, follows it and devours the eggs. But with them, the simple act of coupling is not sufficient for the purposes of reproduction; it is necessary for the male to pass among the eggs which the female has produced, in order to sprinkle them with its vitalizing fluid. This does not, however, reach all the eggs out of so vast a multitude; indeed, if it did, the seas and lakes would soon be filled, seeing that each female produces these eggs in quantities innumerable.