FISHING, the art of catching fish. See ANGLING, FISHERY, and FISHING, &c. Encycl.
Chinese Fishing. We venture to give this appellation to some very ingenious contrivances of the people of China for catching in their lakes, not only fish, but water-fowl. For the purpose of catching fish they have trained a species of pelican, resembling the common corvorum, which they call the Leu-tze, or fishing bird. It is brown, with a white throat, the body whitish beneath, and spotted with brown; the tail is rounded, the irides blue, and the bill yellow. Sir George Staunton, who, when the embassy was proceeding on the southern branch of the great canal, saw those birds employed, tells us, that on a large lake, close to the east side of the canal, are thousands of small boats and rafts, built entirely for this species of fishery. On each boat or raft are ten or a dozen birds, which, at a signal from the owner, plunge into the water; and it is astonishing to see the enormous size of fish with which they return, grasped within their bills. They appeared to be so well trained, that it did not require either ring or cord about their throats to prevent them from swallowing any portion of their prey, except what their master was pleased to return to them for encouragement and food. The boat used by these fishermen is of a remarkable light make, and is often carried to the lake, together with the fishing birds, by the men who are there to be supported by it.
The same author saw the fishermen busy on the great lake Wee chaung-hee; and he gives the following account of a very singular method practised by them for catching the fish of the lake without the aid of birds, or of nets, or of hooks.
To one side of a boat a flat board, painted white, is fixed, at an angle of about 45 degrees, the edge inclining towards the water. On moonlight nights the boat is so placed that the painted board is turned to the moon, from whence the rays of light striking on the whitened surface, give to it the appearance of moving water; on which the fish being tempted to leap as on their element, the boatmen raising with a string the board, turn the fish into the boat.
Water-fowl are much sought after by the Chinese, and
and are taken upon the same lake by the following ingenious device. Empty jars or gourds are suffered to float about upon the water, that such objects may become familiar to the birds. The fisherman then wades into the lake with one of those empty vessels upon his head, and walks gently towards a bird; and lifting up his arm, draws it down below the surface of the water without any disturbance or giving alarm to the rest, several of whom he treats in the same manner, until he fills the bag he had brought to hold his prey. The contrivance itself is not so singular, as it is that the same exactly should have occurred in the new continent, as Ulloa asserts, to the natives of Carthage, upon the lake Cienega de Tefias.
FISTULA LACHRYMALIS is a disease which, in all its stages, has been treated of in the article SURGERY, chap. xiv. Encycl. A work, however, has been lately published by JAMES WARE surgeon, in which there is the description of an operation for its cure considerably different from that most commonly used, and which, while it is simple, the author's experience has ascertained to be successful.
In the cure of this disease, which is very troublesome, and not very uncommon, it is a well known practice to insert a metallic tube in the nasal duct of the lachrymal canal: but the advantage derived from this operation is not at all times lasting. Among other causes of failure, Mr Ware notices the lodgment of inspissated mucus in the cavity of the tube. To remedy this defect, he recommends the following operation.
"If the disease has not occasioned an aperture in the lachrymal sac, or if this aperture be not situated in a right line with the longitudinal direction of the nasal duct, a puncture should be made into the sac, at a small distance from the internal juncture of the palpebræ, and nearly in a line drawn horizontally from this juncture towards the nose with a spear-pointed lancet. The blunt end of a silver probe, of a size rather smaller than the probes that are commonly used by surgeons, should then be introduced through the wound, and gently, but steadily, pushed on in the direction of the nasal duct, with a force sufficient to overcome the obstruction in this canal, and until there is reason to believe that it has freely entered into the cavity of the nose. The position of the probe, when thus introduced, will be nearly perpendicular; its side will touch the upper edge of the orbit; and the force between its bulbous end in the nose and the wound in the skin will usually be found, in a full-grown person, to be about an inch and a quarter, or an inch and three-eighths. The probe is then to be withdrawn, and a silver style, of a size nearly similar to that of the probe, but rather smaller, about an inch and three-eighths in length, with a flat head, like that of a nail, but placed obliquely, that it may fit close on the skin, is to be introduced through the duct, in place of the probe, and to be left constantly in it. For the first day or two after the style has been introduced, it is sometimes advisable to wash the eye with a weak saturnine lotion, in order to obviate any tendency to inflammation which may have been excited by the operation; but this in general is so slight, that our author has rarely had occasion to use any application to remove it. The style should be withdrawn once every day for about a week, and afterwards every second or third day. Some warm water
should each time be injected through the duct into the nose, and the instrument be afterwards replaced in the same manner as before. Mr Ware formerly used to cover the head of the style with a piece of diachylon plaster spread on black silk, but has of late obviated the necessity for applying any plaster by blackening the head of the style with sealing wax.
"The effect (says he) produced by the style, when introduced in the way above mentioned, at first gave me much surprise. It was employed with a view similar to that with which Mr Pott recommends the introduction of a bougie; viz. to open and dilate the nasal duct, and thus to establish a passage, through which the tears might afterwards be conveyed from the eye to the nose. I expected, however, that whilst the style continued in the duct the obstruction would remain, and of course that the watering of the eye, and the weakness of the sight, would prove as troublesome as they had been before the instrument was introduced. I did not imagine that any essential benefit could result from the operation until the style was removed, and the passage thereby opened. It was an agreeable disappointment to me to find that the amendment was much more expeditious. The watering of the eye almost wholly ceased as soon as the style was introduced; and in proportion as the patient amended in this respect, his sight also became more strong and useful. The style, therefore, seems to act in a twofold capacity: first, it dilates the obstructed passage; and then, by an attraction somewhat similar to that of a capillary tube, it guides the tears through the duct into the nose.
"The wound that I usually make into the sac, if the suppurative process has not formed a suitable aperture in this part, is no larger than is just sufficient to admit the end of the probe or style; and this, in general, in a little time, becomes a fistulous orifice, through which the style is passed without occasioning the smallest degree of pain. The accumulation of matter in the lachrymal sac, which, previous to the operation, is often copious, usually abates soon after the operation has been performed; and, in about a week or ten days, the treatment of the case becomes so easy, that the patient himself, or some friend or servant who is constantly with him, is fully competent to do the whole that is necessary. It consists solely in withdrawing the style two or three times in the week, occasionally injecting some warm water, and then replacing the instrument in the same way in which it was done before.
"It is not easy to ascertain the exact length of time that the style should be continued in the duct. Some have worn it many years, and, not finding any inconvenience from the instrument, are still afraid and unwilling to part from it. Others, on the contrary, have disused it at the end of about a month or six weeks, and have not had the smallest return of the obstruction afterwards."
The author relates so many successful cases of this operation, that we thought it our duty to record his method in this Supplementary volume of our general repository of arts and sciences; for a successful practice, as well in surgery as in physic, must rest on the basis of experience.
OBLIQUE or SECOND FLANK, or FLANK of the Curtain, is that part of the curtain from whence the face of the opposite bastion can be seen, being contained between the lines rasant and fichtant, or the greater and
and less lines of defence; or the part of the curtain between the flank and the point where the fitchant line of defence terminates.
Covered, Low, or Retired FLANK, is the platform of the casemate, which lies hid in the bastion, and is otherwise called the orillon.