SCATE.
The ancients liked or disliked scate, according to the places where they eat it. So, now, this fish is rejected in Sardinia, and thought excellent in London and Paris.[XXI_164]
The Greek gastronomists of fashion sometimes partook of the back of the scate;[XXI_165] the remainder seemed unworthy of their attention, and a certain poet maintains that a piece of stuff, boiled, offers to the palate a flavour quite as agreeable.[XXI_166]
Italian gluttony always gave a cold reception to this dish, which they owed to the Greek cooks, and which their magiric writers have not sufficiently studied.
Aristotle knew of two species of scate;[XXI_167] Pliny speaks of them;[XXI_168] Lacépède enumerates thirty-nine species.[XXI_169]
That celebrated naturalist, Buffon’s pupil and competitor, assures us that several eastern nations consider the smoke arising from the eggs of scates, thrown on burning coals, and inhaled by the mouth and nostrils, as an excellent remedy against intermittent fever.[XXI_170] It would cost but little to make the experiment.