204 LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



not uninteresting quadruped plays the part of entertainer and 

 host; but the due exercise of the culinary art should in 

 large measure mitigate the severity of the sentence passed 

 against pork as a common medium of parasitic infection. 

 Unwashed vegetables, which may harbour or lodge, without 

 developing, the embryos of parasites, are similarly to be 

 regarded with suspicion. Indeed, it may be said that the 

 chances of parasitic infection from this latter source are 

 greater than those from badly cooked meat, the vegetable 

 matter escaping even the chance of having its minute 

 tenants destroyed. Unsavoury as the subject may at first 

 sight appear, the whole question before us teems with an 

 interest which should effectually appeal to every one in the 

 light of saving knowledge. And it is not the least worthy 

 remark which may be made regarding such a topic, that 

 zoological science may be shown capable of extending its 

 interests into the most intimate departments of the house- 

 hold, and even of encroaching on the sphere of that domestic 

 autocrat, the cook. 



