294 FISHES AND FISHING. 



men, or a greater exemption from the maladies just 

 alluded to. Other circumstances maj^ contribute to 

 the beneficial effect, but are not, I think, by them- 

 selves sufficient to account for the effect. There are 

 facts of a corroborative kind ; such as the well-ascer- 

 tained efficacy of cod-liver oil — an oil containing 

 iodine — in arresting the progress of consumption ; 

 the efficacy of the same substance in relieving or curing 

 some chronic aliments, especially bronchocele ; and 

 the virtue of fish diet, of raw fish, as employed in 

 Siberia and Holland, in the treatment of many chronic 

 complaints resisting ordinary medical treatment, of 

 which there are well- authenticated accounts.'* 



Dr. Armstrong, in the " Art of Preserving Health," 

 wrote, about 1747, thus of the inhabitants of some of 

 the frozen regions of the globe. 



" Far in the horrid realms of winter, where 

 Th' established ocean heaps a monstrous waste 

 Of shining rocks and mountains to the pole, 

 There lives a hardy race, whose plainest wants 

 Relentless earth, their cruel stepmother, 

 Regards not. On the waste of iron fields, 

 Untam'd, untractable, no harvests wave, 

 Pomona hates them, and the clownish god 

 Who tends the garden. In this frozen world 

 Such cooling gifts were vain ; a fitter meal 

 Is earned with ease ; for here the fruitful spawn 

 Of ocean swarms, and heaps their genial board 

 With generous fare, and luxury profuse. 

 These are their bread, the only bread they know.*' 



