268 FISHING GOSSIP. 



one outwe, of aqua vitce. In my presence he boiled the whelps, 

 put alive into that oil, until the flesh caine from the bones, 

 then presently he put in the worms, which he had first killed 

 in white wine, that they might be so cleansed from the 

 earthly dross with which they are usually replete ; and then 

 he boiled them in the same oil so long till they became dry, 

 and had spent all their juice therein ; then he strained it 

 through a towel without much pressing ; and added the tur- 

 pentine to it, and lastly aqua vitce ; calling God to witness 

 that he had no other balsam wherewith to cure wounds made 

 with gunshot, and bring them to suppuration. Thus he sent 

 me away as rewarded with a most precious gift, requesting me 

 to keep it as a great secret, and not to reveal it to any." 



Ambrose Pare was surgeon in ordinary to Henry 

 II. in 1552, a post which he also retained under the 

 three succeeding kings, Francis II., Charles IX., and 

 Henry III. It is therefore not a little curious to 

 find " Monsieur Charras, apothecary royal to the 

 late French king, Lewis the Fourteenth," coming out 

 with recipes of a similar nature as " unguents for the 

 certain taking of divers kinds of fish." It may be 

 that M. Charras, as apothecary, was entirely in ignor- 

 ance of the original application of " whelp oil," and 

 that, finding it, probably with the directions for its 

 composition after the death of this surgeon, in a 

 peculiar box, for its better transit upon the field of 

 battle, drew an inference therefrom, that it was 

 intended for some sporting pursuit, and if so, that it 

 would not apply to any other than angling. Or as 

 even incidents travel in circles that the hoax played 



