POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



573 



victims of rheumatism, another of epilepsy, 

 while the others maintain a healthy equi- 

 librium." The clinical subjects which have 

 been selected so far by the British society 

 are acute pneumonia, chorea, acute rheu- 

 matism, diphtheria, and inherited syphilis, 

 and information is invited by means of 

 memorandum-cards of inquiry. Several re- 

 ports have been already gathered on these 

 subjects. The German physicians have se- 

 lected, for the single subject of their similar 

 investigations, pulmonary phthisis, on which 

 they solicit facts concerning the heredity of 

 the disease, its communicability, its cure, 

 and the transition of pneumonia into phthi- 

 sis, with many minute particulars respecting 

 family relations. The advantages expected 

 to be derived from making the investiga- 

 tions international are, that it will give them 

 more extent, and will enlist in them minds 

 of varied capacity and habits, and diversi- 

 fied training. 



Snail-Cnltnre, — The taste for snails as 

 food is growing in France. The moUusks 

 are regularly cultivated in some of the vine- 

 growing districts of the country, but the 

 greater part of those with which the mar- 

 kets ai'e supplied are raised in the depart- 

 ment of Aude. Toward the end of the sum- 

 mer the snails are picked up and collected 

 in small parks which are made in a corner 

 of the garden or field, and are surrounded 

 with an inclosure of sawdust and dry bri- 

 ers, which is stocked with aromatic plants. 

 The park must be i-egularly visited, particu- 

 larly in rainy weather, to drive in estrays. 

 Toward the end of the fall, bunches of moss 

 and dry leaves are scattered around, in 

 which the snails may hide themselves after 

 they have closed their shells. The animals 

 are then captured, packed, and sent to mar- 

 ket. The ancient Romans cultivated these 

 gasteropods on a quite extensive scale. 

 Their parks were large and surrounded by 

 water, so that the snails could not escape, 

 and an abundant supply of moisture should 

 always be at hand. At fattening-time the 

 animals were put in earthen pots pierced 

 with holes, and rubbed on the inside with 

 flour mixed with wine. Some of them grew 

 to be very large. The Romans liked snails 

 because they provoked thirst, and gave an 

 excuse for drinking wine. 



Insect-eating Men.— The insect-eaters 

 here referred to are not occasional persons 

 of depraved tastes, but whole nations, who 

 consume insects on so large a scale as to 

 raise them to a regular article of trade. 

 Locusts arc an article of food in parts of 

 Africa, Arabia, and Persia, of such impor- 

 tance that the price of provisions is influ- 

 enced by the quantity of the dried insects in 

 hand. The Tuaregs of Africa esteem them 

 highly, and a single individual will eat as 

 many as three hundred of them — raw, roast- 

 ed or stewed— at a meal. Cakes of crushed 

 locusts are a delicacy. Boiled locusts are 

 appreciated in Burmah. Termites and ants 

 ai-e the next most important food-insects. 

 The egg-laden bodies of the females of Alia 

 cephalotcs are industriously collected by In- 

 dians in South America, and the taste of 

 their roasted and salted bodies has been ap- 

 preciated even by Europeans. The African 

 negroes can hardly get enough of termites, 

 which are eaten fried at the Cape, and in 

 other regions arc made into cakes. Roasted 

 termites taste somewhat like marrow or 

 sweet cream. The seventeen -year locust 

 has been eaten in North America, and is 

 said to have been used in soap -making. 

 Cakes are made in Mexico with the eggs of 

 two kinds of water-bugs. A cake made in 

 Fezzan of insect -eggs is described as hav- 

 ing the taste of caviare. The Romans were 

 fond of a larva which they called cossiis. 

 A favorite dish is prepared in Jamaica from 

 the larva of a beetle that lives in the trunks 

 of palm-trees. Another wood-iusect is pre- 

 served in sugar by the Chinese and Malays, 

 and a liquor is made, with the addition of 

 some water, from a beetle in Mexico. Cat- 

 erpillars are eaten in Australia and at the 

 Cape, at the risk of woful pains in the stom- 

 ach, and even spiders, abhorred by every 

 other race, are eaten by the Hottentots and 

 New Caledonians, with the same liability. 

 Worms are accepted as food by very few 

 people. A kind of grub is collected and 

 eaten in Brazil, a nereid worm in Samoa, 

 and a rced-worm by the Ainos of Japan. 

 The Australians around Port Adelaide are 

 said to have lived exclusively on worms and 

 mollusks, while they abhorred beef. Some 

 persons in Naples eat a tape-worm, a para- 

 site of the carp, fried in oil, and call it maca- 

 roni piatti. Sea-urchins form a quite im- 



