THE PHYSICIAN OF FISHES. 219 



here in the Fish House for upwards of five years. The Jack are 

 at all times a truculent race, and the specimens here in the tanks 

 fully sustain the character blear-eyed, and sinister-looking as 

 any that ever seized thirsty calf by the nose, ravaged a fish-pond, 

 or made off with an angler's tackle. Neither in spirit nor in 

 appetite do they seem to be much affected by their captivity. It is 

 necessary to cover the tank containing them with a net to keep 

 them from jumping over the sides at night ; and when feeding-time 

 comes round, they are always ready, be the meal fish, or frogs, 

 or birds, or, as is sometimes the case, a hall-grown rat. 



"We have seen it stated somewhere that a young Pike here, in 

 the Fish House, having been maltreated by an elder of its own 

 species, was completely cured of its ailments by the attentions 

 of a couple of Tench. There can be little doubt, however, that 

 it was a made-up story. The Tench has long had the reputation 

 of being " the physician of fishes," as good old Isaak "\Valtuu 

 expresses it, especially of the Pike, although there is no evidence 

 whatever to countenance the wide-spread belief in its healing 

 virtues. Mr. Couch, who is a great authority on all matters ich- 

 thyological, is inclined to the opinion that it has originated from 

 a passage in the " Chronicle " of Hollinshead, who, speaking of 

 the Pike, says that, " when the fishmonger hath opened his side, 

 and laid out his rivet unto the buier, for the better utterance of his 

 ware, and cannot make him away at that present, he laieth the 

 same againe into the proper place, and sowing up the wound, he 

 restoreth him to the pond where Tenches are, "who never cease 

 to sucke and licke his greeved place, till they have restored him 

 in healthe, and made him readie to come again to the stall when 

 his turne shall come about." And so, argues Mr. Couch, this 

 nibbling of the fat of a wound that would have healed as well 

 without it, has in all probability given rise to an opinion which 

 naturalists, content to copy from each other, have perpetuated to 

 the present time. 



Not long ago the Fish House just missed an addition to its 

 live stock which would have proved a wonder of the first mag- 

 nitude. It. was a fine specimen, three foot long, of the famous 

 Fishing Frog or Angler (Lophius jntcatorius), which was 

 captured near Weymouth, and at once sent off to the Gardens ; 

 but unfortunately the journey was too much for it, and it made 

 its appearance in the Fish House, dead. But such a "lion," 



