Linton. — Cestode Cysts in Fish 125 



that there is no reason for apprehending danger of infection 

 from the ingestion of these cysts with the food, and that 

 there is nothing in the cysts themselves, even when one is 

 acquainted with them by microscopic study, to call forth the 

 remotest suggestion of a qualm at the thought of swallow- 

 ing one of them. With full appreciation of another valued 

 and even luxurious article of food, it may be said that any 

 one who can swallow a live oyster, at the same time know- 

 ing, as the zoologist knows, what he is swallowing, should 

 not balk at a butterfish, no matter how many cysts it may 

 harbor in its flesh. Indeed, the case is hardly a parallel one, 

 because in eating an infected butterfish the chances are that 

 all, or nearly all, of the cysts will be left on the plate with 

 the bones, while along with the ingested oyster has gone 

 the entire alimentary canal with its contents and any of the 

 parasitic fauna and flora of the oyster species that the in- 

 dividual happens to be carrying, to say nothing of the pos- 

 sible germs of typhoid, if the mollusk in question happens 

 to come from fattening grounds which the sewage of a city 

 reaches before it is rendered innocuous by the cleansing 

 waters of the sea. 



With respect to the occurrence of cestode parasites in the 

 flesh of marine food fish I have already pointed out (10) 

 that the case of the butterfish is an exceptional one, an ex- 

 amination of other food fishes of the Woods Hole region 

 having shown that the occurrence of parasites in those parts 

 of the fish that are used for food are extremely rare, more 

 unusual, I am sure, than is the case with the warm-blooded 

 animals which form our staple flesh diet. 



VI. TABLE SHOWING THE OCCURRENCE OF CYSTS IN 

 BUTTERFISH 



The last tables showing the results of the examination of 

 butterfish for flesh parasites which I have published in- 

 cluded the results of the investigation of the summer of 

 1908. 



