[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SpEcTATon.."] SIR, — I have been reading
"A. D.'s" interesting letter. The belief that a horse-tail hair in water will turn into an eel, is to be found here and there all over the Kingdom. Having lain
in water for a good long time, the hair swells ; assumes the form of a young eel ; and, probably owing to small particles of shifting ballast inside it, acquires a slow, wriggling motion. The motion is so like that of life, that seven or eight years ago some serious " naturalists " thought that in the horse-hair eel they had discovered spontaneous generation of an astounding kind ; but, of course, it was found to be purely mechanical.— [We have made only a small selection from an immense variety of letters on this subject, all showing the wide dis- tribution of the popular idea.—En. Spectator.]
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