medicinal fish

various fishes and fish parts have been used in cultures world-wide as perceived cures and treatments for ailments. Numbfish (Torpedinidae) applied to the temples cured headaches; sole placed over the site of the spleen helped alleviate splenitis; remoras delayed birth; shark\'s teeth rubbed across the gums of children helped teething, produced sound incisors and a shark-like appetite; livers were applied topically in various diseases and in treatment of fever and dropsy; red herrings rubbed on the body cured rheumatism; cramps and sprains were cured with an application of fresh eel skin; an eel will cure fever; deafness was cured by a powder of eel\'s liver; toothache by carrying around a piece of a dogfish that had been returned alive to the sea; jaundice by application of a split tench (which must then be buried; haemorraghes stopped by the brains of fish; whooping cough by putting a live fish in the mouth although it must not be swallowed; and so on