104 NATURAL HISTORY 



took the following description : " The loach, in its 

 general aspect, has a pellucid appearance : its back is 

 mottled with irregular collections of small black dots, 

 not reaching much below the linea lateralis, as are the 

 back and tail fins: a black line runs from each eye 

 down to the nose ; its belly is of a silvery white ; the 

 upper jaw projects beyond the lower, and is surrounded 

 with six feelers, three on each side: its pectoral fins 

 are large, its ventral much smaller ; the fin behind its 

 anus small ; its dorsal fin large, containing eight spines ; 

 its tail, where it joins to the tail fin, remarkably broad, 

 without any taperness, so as to be characteristic of 

 this genus : the tail fin is broad, and square at the end. 

 From the breadth and muscular strength of the tail it 

 appears to be an active nimble fish 2 ." 



In my visit I was not very far from Hungerford, and 

 did not forget to make some inquiries concerning the 

 wonderful method of curing cancers by means of toads. 

 Several intelligent persons, both gentry and clergy, do, 

 I find, give a great deal of credit to what was asserted 

 in the papers: and I myself dined with a clergyman 

 who seemed to be persuaded that what is related is 

 matter of fact : but, when I came to attend to his 

 account, I thought I discerned circumstances which 

 did not a little invalidate the woman's story of the 

 manner in which she came by her skill. She says of 

 herself, " that labouring under a virulent cancer, she 

 went to some church where there was a vast crowd : 

 on going into a pew, she was accosted by a strange 

 clergyman; who, after expressing compassion for her 

 situation, told her that if she would make such an 



8 Ambresbury had become notorious for its loaches, on account of 

 sportsmen frequently, in frolic, swallowing one of them alive in a glass 

 of white wine : but the fish is by no means a local one. It occurs 

 generally throughout the country in brooks and rivulets, lurking under 

 stones. 



The use of the word spine in the above description is, it may be 

 remarked, not altogether correct ; the rays of the dorsal fin being soft and 

 branched, as is usual in malacopterygian fishes. E. T. B. 



