3i8 UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 



clarifying beer, while in Eastern countries, such as India and 

 China, they are converted into fish-glue, which is a very powerful 

 adhesive. 



Other fishes serve as a source of oil for technical purposes, as^ 

 e.g., the Menhaden or Pogy {Clupea menhaden), a member of the 

 herring family. This species is largely captured on the eastern 

 coasts of the United States for this particular purpose. The livers 

 of sharks and do^-fishes are also of considerable value as a source 

 of oil. 



Insects (Insecta). — One would scarcely expect this group to 

 be included under the present heading, but it appears that in 

 Algeria locusts are utilized in the preparation of a kind of oil. 



MEDICINAL AND MISCELLANEOUS ECONOMIC PRODUCTS 



Animals and Animal Products as Medicinal Agents. — In 

 former days large use was made of animals in medicine, the pre- 

 scriptions being usually fanciful and often revolting. To consider 

 these ancient practices at length would be here superfluous, and 

 the subject will be sufficiently illustrated by the following 

 quotation from Hulme's Natural History Lore and Legend, a 

 book in which much curious matter is brought together: — " Cogan 

 in his Haven of Health declares ' thus much will I say as to the 

 commendation of the hare, and of the defense of hunters' toyle, 

 that no beast, be it never so great, is profitable to so many and so 

 diverse uses in Physicke as the hare ', and he then proceeds tO' 

 give numerous prescriptions in which it is the principal feature. 

 ' The knee-bone of an Hare taken out alive and worne abute the 

 necke is excellent against Convulsion fitts ', we are told, and 

 perhaps it may be so, but the point that more especially strikes 

 us, and it impresses one over and over again in these mediaeval 

 recipes, is the cold-blooded cruelty and indifference to animal 

 suffering that is shown in so many of them. Fried mice were 

 considered a specific in small-pox, but it was necessary that they 

 should be fried alive; while for cataract a fox should be captured, 

 his tongue cut out, and the animal released; the member thus 

 barbarously procured was placed in a bag of red cloth and hung 

 round the man's neck. For erysipelas a favourite old remedy was 

 to cut off one-half of the ear of a cat and let the blood drop on the 

 part affected, while for fits one popular recipe was to take a mole 



