70 THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



The carp has been dragged into medicine, like nearly every other 

 fish. The older physicians ascribed various miraculous powers to the- 

 fat. Amongst other diseases for which it was a remedy was a peculiar, 

 now undefinable, disorder termed " hot rheumatism." The manner of its 

 application was by frequent rubbing on the painful part, and the effect 

 was eminently mollifying and salutary. A small triangular stone, said to 

 be found in the jaws of carp (I have never seen it), on being ground to 

 powder and applied to a bleeding nose was said to act as a styptic. The 

 gall was used as a liniment for sore eyes ; and "above the eyes," says an 

 old jEsculapius, "two little bones exist, semicircular in shape, which are 

 diligently preserved by noble females against the lunatical disease." 



In the "Haven of Health" also the carp is comprised in the list 

 of " ten sortes of fishe which are reckoned as principal in the preservation 

 of health," and the author adds, "it is in great wholesomeness, of 

 great value, and the tongue of the carpe is very pleasant to carping 

 ladies." 



Gastronomically I consider the fish good. Dame Berners styles it 

 a " deynteoua fysshe." The Germans make great resources out of its 

 cultivation for food ; they most esteem the head. The palates of carp 

 have been long esteemed as a delicacy analogous, I imagine, to peacocks' 

 brains and goose livers, for Couch speaks of having a note in his posses- 

 sion, written a century and a half ago, relating to the slaughter of forty- 

 three brace of carp for their palates. 



I wonder what they resemble in flavour the famous nightingales' 

 tongues of Heliogabalus ? And thus Massinger in his " City Madam " - 



Men talk of country Christmasses. 



Their thirty-pound buttered egg* their pies of carps' tongues, 



Their pheasants drenched with ambergris, &c., 



and " rare " Ben Jonson compounds a kind of " hell broth " thus : 



The ton flues of carps, dormice, and camels' heels, 

 Boiled in the spirit of Sol. 



Truly, a marvellous mixture. 



Izaak Walton gives a most wonderful recipe for cooking this fish. 

 He says : " Take a carp (first catch him, of course), alive, if possible, 

 scour him and rub him clean with water and salt, but scale him not ; then 

 open him, and put him, with his blood and his liver, which you must save 

 when you open him, into a small pot or kettle ; then take sweet mar- 

 joram, thyme, and parsley, of each half a handful, a sprig of rosemary, 

 and another of savory, bind them into two or three bundles, and put 

 them to your carp, with four or five whole onions, twenty pickled oysters,, 

 and three anchovies. Then pour upon your carp as much claret wine/ 



