THE PIKE FAMILY. 233 



does discover a stone in the Brain of the Pike, much like 

 unto a chrystal. Gesner himself, the great Naturalist, tes- 

 tifies that he found in the head of a little Pike two white 

 stones. . . . Gesner likewise observes that his heart and 

 galls is very medicinable to cure agues, abate feavers, &c., 

 and that his biting is venomous and hard to be cured." 

 (The latter assertion is undoubtedly true, as pointed out 

 in its effects upon rats ; but it is to be attributed to the 

 punctured shape of the wounds inflicted, rather than to 

 any poisonous qualities in the Pike's tooth.) Writing in 

 the reign of Charles II., Siebald says that the heart of a 

 Pike is a remedy against febrile paroxysms, that the gall 

 is of much use in affections of the eyes, and that the ashes 

 of the fish are used to dress old wounds. These, and the 

 rest of his statements on medical subjects, have the formal 

 approbation of the President and Censor of the Royal Col- 

 lege of Physicians of Edinburgh *. Mr. Blakey mentions 

 that the little bone in the form of a cross, already referred 

 to, has been worn by the credulous as a talisman against 

 witchcraft and enchantment, and that in some of the dis- 

 tricts of Hungary and Bohemia it is still considered an 

 unlucky omen to witness before mid-day the plunge of a 

 Pike in stagnant waters f- 



The roe of this fish provokes violent vomiting and 

 other disagreeable symptoms J, and used to be included, 



* Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. xii. p. 253. 



t ' How to Angle and where to pro.' 



I Natural History of Fishes, by S. J v p. 67 (publ. 1795). 



