294 
THE TENCH. 
ful friendlhip between this animal and the pike *, a filh 
•which, though it devours every other, will not offer 
violence to the tench, on account 'of its healing quality. 
It has hence been called the phyfician of the filh ; the 
flime of its fkin being of a healing nature, an inhabitant 
of the water is no fooner wounded, than the phyfician is 
at hand with a powerful ftyptic : 
Clofe to his fcales the kind phyfician glides, 
And fweats a healing balfam from his fides f . 
The Jew praclifing phyfic at Rome, are faid to apply 
the half of a tench, after being cut up, to the foies of 
the feet, when their patients are feizcd with violent fe- 
vers \ ; we believe, however, that the medical virtues of 
this filh, either while dead or alive, never exifted but in 
the imaginations of the ignorant and credulous. 
The tench fpawns in fpring, and in the beginning of 
fumrner ; it is fuperior in fertility to the carp, near four 
hundred thoufand ova having been numbered ina fingleroe. 
The young fry are remarkably quick in their growth ; 
a circutnftance the more credible, becaufe they devour 
mucus and every kind of filth with avidity. The moll 
proper bait for them is fmall earth worms r according to 
the prefent falhion of eating, they are deemed wholefome 
and delicious food. 
The tench is thick and fhort in proportion to its length; 
the fcales are very fmall, and covered with flime : The 
colour of the back is dufky ; the dorfal and ventral fins 
of the fame colour : The head, fides, and belly, are of a 
greenifli caff, molt beautifully mixed with gold, which 
rs 
* Salvianus apud Will. 
f Diaper’s pilot. Eclogue, ii, f Jovius de pifeib. Romanis, 
