PISH IN MEDICINE. 81 



made with a very impure mixed oU; and that now se- 

 veral other fish, as well as the cod, are amerced of their 

 livers, this practice indeed obtaining in every case where 

 the quantity yielded is likely to prove suiEcient to de- 

 fray the expense of extraction. 



Fish roes were unknown to the ancients either as a 

 drug or poison, though that of the barbel from the time 

 of Gesner has formed the subject of medical investiga- 

 tion, and was not very long ago enrolled among the 

 emetics of several pharmacopeias, till wisely abandoned 

 on account of its dangerous properties. Abroad, in- 

 stances are not wanting of fatal resiilts from its employ- 

 ment; and Antonio Gazius, who experimented upon 

 his own person with two small boluses, has left the fol- 

 lowing remarks as a caveat to all future experimenta- 

 lists : ' At first I felt no inconvenience, but some hours 

 having elapsed, I began to be disagreeably affected, and 

 as my belly swelled, and could not be brought down by 

 anise or other carminatives, I was soon in a state of great 

 depression and distress. An hour afterwards my coun- 

 tenance, as I have since heard, changed, and was pallid 

 like that of a man in a swoon, and aU the symptoms be- 

 coming rapidly more and more urgent, my friends were 

 in the deepest anxiety. At length a deadly coldness 

 creeping over my trunk and limbs, a violent attack of 

 cholera ensued, from which, after vomiting, and passing 

 the offending bits of roe, I ultimately recovered, though 

 long labouring under such prostration of strength, that 

 my life was for some time judged in imminent peril. The 



less precisely ascertained, it lias been found invaluable in diseases 

 of the chest, and may be said to have achieved what no other me- 

 diciae ever yet achieved, the controlling of hectic symptoms, the 

 suspension of tubercular deposits, the arrest of further disorganiza- 

 tion, and even the cicatrization of existing cavities in the sub- 

 stance of the lung. 



B 3 



