244 NOTES ON PISH AND FISHING. 



magnet. They fatten well when castrated. They seem 

 to be more sensitive than any other fish of chemical refuse 

 discharged into the water. All kinds of experiments have 

 been made on unfortunate carp by vivisectionists, in the 

 ■way of abstraction of the roe and replacing it with felt, 

 and of evisceration more or less complete ; and the records 

 of these experiments tend to show that the carp bore the 

 operations with considerable equanimity, and like those 

 subjected to the Cardinal's curse in the Jackdaw of Rheims, 

 not only were " nothing the worse/' but " lived happily 

 for ever afterwards." But enough on this topic. I am 

 happy to say that I am a believer in the theory that fish, 

 as cold-blooded animals, have little or no sensation of 

 physical pain, though, barring the playing them on the 

 " cold steel," I always behave to them as if they 

 had. 



Pathologically, there is much to say also about the carp j 

 for, on the one hand, some eminent authorities, ancient 

 and modern, claim that our Oyprinus carpio enjoys an 

 immunity from all disease, while others maintain that he 

 is subject to all the ills that fishy " flesh is heir to," 

 and many more. However this may be, like some other 

 fish, the carp, or parts of him, have been prescribed by the 

 older physicians for a variety of ailments. His fat, says 

 Dr. Badham, has been used as a mollifying unguent for 

 "hot rheumatism/' his gall as a liniment for sore eyes, 

 and a triangular stone, said to exist in his jaws, is said to 

 act as a styptic, and to be efficacious for other diseases. 



It is no exaggeration to say that carp can be domesti- 

 cated like cats and dogs, for they can be taught to come 

 to the sound of the human voice, or some artificial sound 

 like that of a whistle ; and will even suffer themselves to 



