THE TENCH. 251 



Cut in pieces and placed to the soles of the feet, it would 

 overcome all fevers, and the dreaded plague itself, and so 

 forth ad infinitum ; while for invalids and convalescents 

 tench broth was recommended as an intermediate diet be- 

 tween gruel and mutton broth. Wonderful fish ! of whom 

 the author of The Haven of Health (which I have quoted so 

 often) says, " He is as medicinable to fishes, so is he whole- 

 some to man's body." And this quotation necessarily 

 involves a word or two in reference to the old tradition 

 that the tench is the " physician of fishes," and especially 

 of the pike, who, as Izaak Walton further says, " for- 

 bears to devour him, be he never so hungry." The idea 

 was, and perhaps to a certain extent is, that the slime 

 with which the tench is covered is a natural balsam of 

 healing powers for the cure of himself and others. It has 

 long been said that the tench, unlike other fish, is free 

 from liability to all diseases ; and certainly when care- 

 fully observing the fresh-water fish at the Westminster 

 Aquarium soon after it was opened, I noticed that tench 

 alone seemed perfectly free from that unnatural coating 

 of slimy excrescence which more or less affected the 

 other fish, and so sorely puzzled the ichthyologists of the 

 Aquarium. Bat whether this freedom from disease, 

 presuming the fact established, is to be attributed to the 

 natural slime on the tench, and whether this really has 

 the healing virtue so long credited to it, may be questioned. 

 Camden, in his description of the stews in Southwark 

 in his days, says, "Here have I seen pikes' paunches 

 opened with a knife to show their fatness ; and presently 

 the wide gashes and wounds come together again by 

 touch of tenches, and with their glutinous slime perfectly 

 healed up •" but I have never seen any record of recent 



