Notices of Books. 9353 
died. Suspicion fell upon the meal and the host. The wine from 
which they had drank was analysed, and, although no poison was 
found, the host continued to be suspected, and at last was obliged to 
emigrate.” 
I confess I read this case in the full expectation of finding a sequel 
that would establish the Doctor’s “ claim,” but not a word of the kind 
is to be discovered ; the ham was not measly, the sausages were not 
feline ; and there is not a single reason assigned why the minute Tri- 
china should be charged with this quadruple murder. 
But I come to the “ perfect cure ;” the entomologist will be delighted 
to find it exists in that well-known fluid, benzine or benzole, with 
which he has for so many years ungreased his favourite Lepidoptera. 
“ Professor Mosler has found as the result of careful experiments that 
benzine is a poison for Trichine. It rapidly kills lice and other ver- 
min and seems to have the same effect upon Cysticercus and Trichina. 
But benzine is also a powerful poison for large animals and man; and 
if used in the treatment of Trichinosis should be employed with 
especial caution. A rabbit can take ten grains, a pig thirty grains, 
and a cow half an ounce of benzine per diem, without its producing 
alarming symptoms of poison.” Very good! but why give it to a cow, 
which is not enumerated in the list of animals subject to Trichinosis. 
“Up to the present time benzine has not yet been employed in Tri- 
chinosis in man, but its use in the more severe forms of this affection 
seems justifiable.” Of course it does! why not give it to man? why 
persecute the “ pretty cow that made sweetest milk to soak your bread,” 
running the risk of poisoning your little ones? why not give it to 
“ gentlemen engaged in the inspection of schools?” It is certainly 
unusual in cases of human infirmity to administer the remedy to our 
cattle. What should we say to our family A’sculapius if he suggested 
our giving Dutch drops to our short-horns when we were afflicted 
with excruciating lumbago ? 
In conclusion, I can only repeat that Dr. Althaus has hit the right 
nail on the head in selecting Trichinosis as a theme for a fashionable 
audience ; but I fancy he will make but slight impression on the hard- 
headed and argumentative zoologist, the man who has that disagreeable 
habit of inquiring into the why and the wherefore of every assertion. 
But this is of no consequence. Let the Doctor dismiss the duil 
sceptic, from whom he has been labouring to obtain some slight 
admission, with the grand and crushing burst of indignation launched 
by Sergeant Buzfuz at the humiliated Weller, “It's perfectly impossible, 
VOL, XXII, 3R 
