74 PARASITES OF MAN 



(1) that there are not so many precautions (of a sanitary kind) 

 taken in other places ; and (2) that the people elsewhere 

 consume more slightly salted or uncooked meat, as sausages and 

 so forth (come salame giovane, salciccia e via dicendo). Pellizzari, 

 having explained that Marchi's thirty-four tapeworms must 

 all have arisen from the consumption of the Cysticercus of the 

 ox, then goes on to speak of the prevalence of tapeworm in 

 Florence, even in little children. This last-named feature, he 

 says, is due to the circumstance that raw meat is frequently 

 employed as a restorative (come cur a ricostituente) . " Thirty 

 years ago," remarks Professor Pellizzari, "it was just as 

 difficult to find a single T&nia mediocanellata as it is now easy 

 to find a great number of these worms ; and all because it is 

 nowadays customary to eat the flesh of the ox either insuffi- 

 ciently cooked or raw. This absolute inversion of the facts of 

 the case affords proof of the correctness of the position sus- 

 tained by me, to the effect that the cooking of meat up to the 

 degree of temperature necessary for ebullition ensures the 

 destruction of the Cysticerci." Notwithstanding this state- 

 ment of his own, Pellizzari thinks that the interference of 

 inspectors may be pushed too far, and thus serve to bring 

 about the very disasters which it should be their supreme 

 object to prevent. Thus, he argues against the suggestions of 

 those who would entirely prevent the sale of measly meat, and 

 who would only permit, as obtains in the province of Modena, 

 the melting down of the fat of hogs. Very strict measures of 

 this sort would, as he says, constitute a radical means of entirely 

 stamping out Tania, but he also very judiciously reminds the 

 sanitarian (igienista) that " such a step would be a serious 

 thing for the tradesman, bringing injury not only to the muni- 

 cipal administration, but also proving an encouragement to 

 smuggling. In this way the public health would sustain worse 

 injury by the inducement held out to the owners of infected 

 animals to slaughter them in secret butcheries, thus little by 

 little withdrawing the meat from the superintendence of the 

 public officials. By the adoption of fraudulent measures there 

 would be a daily consumption of diseased meat ; and thus also, 

 while the public administration would suffer loss, the public 

 health, on the other hand, would gain nothing." In effect 

 Pellizzari says, if we advise the employment of more severe 

 and radical measures than those already in vogue in Florence, 

 we should overburden the tradesman, almost compel him to 



