NEMATOBA 167 



that led Moses to condemn pork as human food ? 3> Mr 

 Gamgee answered both questions negatively, thus : " The 

 wisdom of the Mosaic law can only be justly estimated with a 

 knowledge of the accidents arising in warm countries from 

 eating pork throughout long and hot periods of the year ; and 

 there is no doubt that the direct evil results, as manifested by 

 human sickness, led to the exclusion of pork from the list of 

 Israelitish viands. The masses of measly pork which may be 

 seen hanging from the butchers' stalls in Southern Europe 

 prove that the long-legged swine which hunt the forests for 

 acorns, and rove about to pick up all kinds of offal, are often 

 unfit for human food, and that they were so to no less extent 

 in the land of Israel is probable." As supplementing Pro- 

 fessor Gaingee's argument, I may remark that, if Moses had 

 been furnished with special knowledge beyond that of his con- 

 temporaries, he would not, in the matter of meat-parasitism, 

 have confined his restrictions to pork. Had he possessed any 

 knowledge of measly beef, he would not have spared the ox on 

 the ground that although " it divideth the hoof, yet it cheweth 

 the cud." As regards home-reared animals, Professor Gamgee 

 cogently remarked : ' ' It is interesting to observe that parasitic 

 maladies in the pig specially abound in that section of the 

 United Kingdom where swine live most amongst human beings. 

 The Yorkshire and Berkshire pigs, in their native counties 

 enclosed in the farmyards of their breeders, are free from worms 

 which are likely to live in the body of man. The Irish pig 

 is the one most commonly injured by entozoa, and the reason 

 for this is evident when we know how much the cottager relies 

 on rearing a porker which is permitted the free range of house 

 and road, where every description of filth is devoured, charged 

 with the ova of parasites expelled by man or some of the lower 

 animals/' He also adds : " The conditions under which we live 

 in the British isles are certainly much less favorable to the 

 propagation of worms ; but we disregard, in our ignorance, the 

 most common precautions to protect ourselves from loathsome 

 diseases, and not only permit dogs to eat any kind of offal 

 in and around slaughterhouses, but sanction the existence of 

 piggeries where all kinds of garbage, charged with worms or 

 their eggs, are daily devoured by swine. The majority of 

 germs calculated to engender parasites are to be found in 

 abundance in the contents of the alimentary canal of human 

 beings and domestic quadrupeds. If pigs are permitted to eat 



