Notices of Books. 9349 
‘On Poisoning by Diseased Park ; being an Essay on Trichinosis 
or Flesh-worn Disease, its Prevention and Cure” By JuLtus 
Atruaus, M.D., &c. London: John Churchill and Sons, New 
Burlington Street. 1864. Price Two Shillings. 
*‘ AND the swine, though he divide the hoof and be cloven footed, 
yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you. Of their flesh 
shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch.”—Leviticus, xi. 
7,8. Taking this for his text, and repeating it after the most approved 
fashion of our clergy, Dr. Althaus discourses long and learnedly on 
the fatal effects of swine’s flesh, and on the worm domiciled in the 
muscles of the pig, which may be considered, like Pandora’s box, the 
prison-house of the evil; its lid is lifted by an operation of Nature’s 
own, and a host of evils liberated to run without control through the 
human frame. Now, whether we regard this question as anthropo- 
logical on account of its intimate connexion with man ; mammological 
on account of its dwelling-place, the bodies of Mammalia; or entozoo- 
logical on account of its originating in an entozoon, matters but little; 
it is certainly zoological, and comes legitimately within the scope and 
objects of the ‘ Zoologist,’ and now that Dr. Althaus has rendered it 
popular, it will certainly force itself on the attention of the readers of 
that journal whether they approve or not. 
Since Acham’s “ Death in the Pot” no human calamity, with the 
exception of corpulence, has ever become so universally fashionable 
as Trichinosis ; and Dr. Althaus is now dividing with the illustrious 
Banting the votaries of popular nosology. Both these distinguished 
writers have hit the right nail on the head; and, strange as it may 
appear, there is no kind of rivalry between them; like drum and fife 
they play in concert, however different the sound. 
Trichinosis is a malady of the human frame which has probably 
raged with unremitting virulence for six thousand years, but of which 
man has unfortunately lived in profound ignorance; it has been working 
insidiously, concealed, underground I was about to say, but I only 
mean under-skin. How great has been our loss I need scarcely say ; 
let us at once seek to repair it: six thousand years have been lost to 
us for ever. Ignorant of the existence of the disease, we have sought 
no cure; like the inhabitants of the Happy Valley we have not known 
of our misery; at last Dr. Althaus, to whose name be every honour, 
has not only detected the evil, but has provided a cure. A worm, a 
little insignificant worm, a microscopic worm, inhabits the bodies of 
