The Doctors once more are at variance. The Court, unanimous that (in Walton’s phrase) “its savour was excellent,” only by a majority (Galen and Celsus J.J.) upheld its nutritive powers, Hicesius J. dissenting. Rondolet against the volume of authority affirms that the _Lupus_ of the sea is of better quality than that of the river. Pliny[647] dubs the _Lupus_ “lanatus”—not from his woolly appearance, or woolly taste, but from the whiteness of his flesh—_laudatissimus_. But by the time of Domitian it has fallen from its proudest place. Its Aristophanic title of “the wisest of fish” was earned by its cunning in escape from net or hook; its method in the case of the former is vouched for by Cassiodorus,[648] and of the latter by Ovid:[649] “quassatque caput, dum vulnere sævus Laxato cadat hamus et ora patentia linquat.” Pliny, commenting on the marvellous friendships and hatreds which exist among fish, instances the astounding combination of both in the _lupus_ and the _mugil_ (grey mullet), “who burn with mutual hate for some, yet live in concord for other, months of the year”—despite the cheery custom, hereditary in the _lupus_, of nibbling off the tail of the _mugil_; all, however, live, “quibus caudae sic amputentur.”[650] 6. The _Asellus_ has been identified as the _Gadus merlangus_, the “Cod;” and as the _Merluccius vulgaris_, the “Hake,” by Scaliger and Rondolet, and by Hardouin with some doubt. It cannot be the Cod (although Dorion speaks[651] of “the ὄνος which some call the γάδος”), because hardly any of the _Gadidæ_, except the Hake, frequent the Mediterranean on account of the temperature of the water. Nor can the _Asellus_ be the Hake, because, while the latter is taken _all the year round_, Pliny[652] and Ælian[653] distinctly state that the _Asellus_ hides in the heat of summer. This assertion, if the ὄνος be the same as the _Asellus_, tallies with, probably indeed derives from, Aristotle’s remark that it is the only fish that hides itself in a hole in the ground in the hot weather, when the Dog-star rages.[654] The fish, Varro informs us, is called _Asellus_ from the ashen colour of its scales, resembling that of the coat of an ass.[655] If there be doubt as to its classification scientifically, there is none gastronomically. Laberius and Cornelius Nepos ranked it only second to the _Acipenser_. Ovid (_Hal._ 131) enters a demurrer against the name given in: “Et tam deformi non dignus nomine asellus.” Galen warmly commends the fish for its quality of flesh, and great nutritive power; in these respects, indeed, he places the Mullet, the _Lupus_, and Sole far below. Xenocrates, whose dictum usually differs from his successor, depreciates it, as does “nobilis ille helluo” Archestratus, whose palate pronounced the flesh “spongy.” A sovereign remedy for fever and ague are “the small stones found in the head of the Asellus, when the moon is full, and attached in linen to the patient’s body!”[656]