294 3rHE T£NCI?» 



ful friendfKlp between'this animal and the pike *, a R(k 

 which, though it devours every other, will not offer 

 violence to the tench, on account of its healing quality. 

 It has hence been called the phyfician of the fifli ; the 

 flime of its (kin being of a healing nature, an inhabitant 

 of the water is no fooner wounded, than the phyfician is 

 at hand with a powerful flyptic : 



Clofe to his fcales the kind phyfician glides, 

 And fweats a healing balfam from his fides f . 



The yews praftifing phyfic at Rome, are faid to apply 

 the half of a tench, after being cut up, to the foles of 

 the feet, when their patients are feized with violent fe- 

 vers X > we believe, however, that the medical virtues of 

 this fifh, either while dead or alive, never exilled but ia 

 the imaginations of the ignorant and credulous. 



The tench fpawns in fpring, and in the beginning of 

 fumrner ; it is fuperior in fertility to the carp, near four 

 hundred thoufand oi'a having been numbered in a fingleroe. 

 The young fry are remarkably quick in their growth 5 

 a circumftance the more credible, becaufe they devour 

 mucus and every kind of filth with avidity. The moll 

 proper bait for them is fmall earth worms : according to 

 the prefent faftiion of eating, they are deemed wholefoma 



and delicious food. 



The tench is thick and fhort in propoi'tion to its length 5 

 the fcales are very fmall, and covered with dime : The 

 colour of the back is duiky ; the dorfal and ventral fins 

 of the fame colour : The head, fides, and belly, are of a 

 greenifh caft, moil beautifully mixed with gold, which 



is 



• Salvianus apud Will, 



j- Diaper's pifcat. Eclogue, ii. J Jovlus de pifcib. Ramanis^ 



