Izaak Walton

“ But I'll
not meddle with them, any farther than to wish them wiser; and shall
tell you next, for I hope I may be so bold, that the Tench is the
physician of fishes, for the Pike especially, and that the Pike, being
either sick or hurt, is cured by the touch of the Tench. And it is
observed that the tyrant Pike will not be a wolf to his physician, but
forbears to devour him though he be never so hungry.
This fish, that carries a natural balsam in him to cure both himself and
others, loves yet to feed in very foul water, and amongst weeds. ”

“ And, yet, it is thought that they,
or some spirit worse than they, first told us, that lice, swallowed alive,
were a certain cure for the yellow-jaundice. This, and many other
medicines, were discovered by them, or by revelation ”