LOACH. | NATURAL HISTORY. 189 
perfectly as ever he did before the eyes were put out. 
The old one devoureth the young ones as soon as they be 
hatched, except one which she suffereth to live, and this 
one is the basest and most dullard; yet notwithstanding, 
afterwards it devoureth both his parents. Twice a year they 
change their skin. They live by couples together, and 
when one of them is taken, the other waxeth mad, and 
rageth upon him that took it. They are enemies to bees. 
They fight with all kind of serpents. The eggs of 
Lizards do kill speedily, except there come a remedy 
from falcon’s dung and pure wine. Mingled with oil it 
causeth hair to grow again upon the head of a man. If 
green Lizards see a man, they instantly gather about him, 
and laying their heads at the one side with great admira- 
tion behold his face. The use of these green Lizards is 
by their skin and gall to keep apples from rotting, and 
also to drive away caterpillars, by hanging up the skin on 
the tops of trees, and by touching the apples with the said 
gall. The ashes of a green Lizard do reduce scars in the 
body to their own colour. 
Topsell, “‘ History of Serpents,”’ pp. 739-42. 
Take a Lizard and cut off its tail, and take what comes 
out, because it is like quicksilver. Then take a taper, and 
moisten it with oil, and put it in a new lamp, and light it,— 
that man’s house will appear splendid and white or silvered. 
Albertus Magnus, “Of the Wonders of the World.” 
[In the deserts of Lybia is] a kind of great Lizard 
which never drinketh, and, if water be put in his mouth, 
he presently dieth. Purchas “Pilgrims,” p. 559 (ed. 1616). 
Loach. 
i, Kine Henry IV., ii. 1, 23. 
Tue Loach is a little river-fish, white with black spots. 
Some say that it feeds on dead bodies, but this is held by 
fishermen to be fabulous. They are considered poor and 
contemptible eating. Hortus Sanitatis, bk. iv. § 41. 
[The commentators are puzzled by this passage in “i. Kin 
Henry IV.” It is quite probable that “like a Loach” aes 
no more accurate meaning than “like a house afire,” or “ like 
