268 FISHING GOSSIP. 
one ounce of agua vite. In my presence he boiled the whelps, 
put alive into that oil, until the flesh came 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 agua vite ; calling God to witness 
that he had no other balsam wherewith to cure wounds ade 
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 Paré 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 
