174 THE DESTRUCTIVE INFLUENCE OF 
Such puerilities might safely be left to die a natural 
death, though it may be as well to remind those who 
profess to trust to them, that although they do not 
put their notions to the test of direct experiment, 
others have, for certain practical reasons, had occasion 
to do so. Dr. Timothy Lewis, who has been for some 
time in Calcutta carrying on, in concert with Dr, D. 
Cunningham, important sanitary investigations, has, 
amongst other things, directed his attention to the 
vitality of tape-worm germs in cooked meat. He 
proved, first, that tape-worm germs are undoubtedly 
killed by exposure for five minutes to a tempera- 
ture of 140° F.; and then, with the view of ascer- 
taining how far they would be likely to experience 
such a temperature in the ordinary process of meat- 
cooking, he made other important observations hav- 
ing considerable interest for us. Dr. Lewis found 
that when legs of mutton had been put into the 
boiler almost as soon as the water, their central 
temperature averaged 140° F. by the time the water 
around them had reached the boiling point ; and that 
after the water had boiled for five minutes, the in- 
ternal temperature of other legs of mutton which had 
remained in the boiler had on an average reached 170°. 
This is a practical method of dealing with the question 
which those sceptical dreamers who talk of the “protec- 
tive influence of lumps” would do well to imitate. 
