388 EPILEPTIC. [CHAP. x. 



leptic, and suffer severely from the disease for months, 

 without being killed by it, as one would expect. It is 

 painful to see them with their head distorted, twisting 

 and pirouetting on one spot as the fit comes on. The 

 symptoms are well known to the London poulterers ; 

 better, perhaps, than to their customers ; for the lia- 

 bility of Quails to this disorder is stated by Pliny as one 

 reason for abstaining from their flesh : 



" To Quails the seed of a poisonous plant (Hellebore) 

 is the most grateful food : for which cause they are 

 banished from our tables ; they are also usually rejected 

 with disgust on account of the epileptic fits which attack 

 them alone amongst animals, except man."* 



These prejudices have long since passed away, and 

 the birds, with all their infirmities, are in high request. 

 It is a pity that the fashion does not in England extend 

 to the legions of small birds, which make such incal- 

 culable havoc on our grain and in our gardens, destroy- 

 ing our roofs, blighting our fruit crops in the bud, and 

 our esculent vegetables in the seed. The plague and 

 nuisance of them would be called intolerable, if it were 

 not inevitable. Let then some one set the example of 

 clearing them away by the aid of side dishes and third 

 courses. " Nothing is better," says Col. Hawker, p. 

 432, < than a dish of small birds fried, and eaten with 

 oil and lemon juice." 



M. Ude, in his elaborate and thoroughly professional 

 work on Cookery, speaks, we think, more slightingly of 

 Quails than they deserve, if a judgment be pronounced 

 on their intrinsic merits without any reference to their 

 London price : "Young Quails are called Cailleteaux, 



* Lib. x. 33. 



