THE TENCH 147 
After quoting without question the authority of Rondeletius 
for the cure of a sick man at Rome by the application of 
a tench to his feet, he cites as among the sacred remedies 
known to the Jews the prescription for swallowing live 
lice as “fa certain cure for the yellow jaundice. This, and 
many other medicines, were discovered by them, or by 
revelation ; for, doubtless, we attained them not by study.” 
Born a goddess, Dulness never dies ; 
and it is certainly discouraging to find that Mr. J. H. Keene, 
to whose Practical Fisherman 1 owe much interesting infor- 
mation, makes the following amazing statement, savouring 
more of the sixteenth than the nineteenth century :— 
“JT myself know of a complete cure of a bad case of 
jaundice by the agency of a tench. The fish was split open 
and the inside and backbone taken out; it was then tied 
over the region of the liver, and in three days the cure was 
almost perfect. The tench was found dyed a complete 
greenish-yellow hue on being taken off.” 
Quite so, and the effect would have been just as satisfactory 
to the patient, provided he had equal faith in the means, 
had an old shoe or a back number of the Lancet been 
used instead of a tench. 
Mr. Keene also lends his support, as a practical angler, 
to the groundless statement that pike, out of gratitude, 
will not attack tench, and that it is useless to offer that fish 
as a bait. Now, the discredit which is inseparable from silly 
stories such as these, rightly extends to those who repeat 
them, and it is high time, for the honour of the fisherman’s 
craft, that they should be stopped. It may be impossible 
to disprove the medicinal properties of tench, for it is 
proverbially difficult to prove a negative ; but any man may 
convince himself that pike will seize small tench when offered 
on spinning tackle. The Rev. W. Houghton states that 
he has occasionally killed pike by trolling with a small 
