TEICHINA SPIRALIS. 363 



the formidable little parasite which we have just considered. So 

 far as I am aware, no successful experiments have been performed 

 with Trichina spiralis in this country, although it appears that 

 some few were attempted by part of the members of the Edinburgh 

 Physiological Society. Mr. Gamgee, nevertheless, in the pages of 

 the "Popular Science Eeview," has recently oflFered some interest- 

 ing observations on the prevalence of diseased meat in different 

 countries. "Did Moses," asks the veterinary professor, "know 

 more about pigs than we do ? "Was it a knowledge of the parasitic 

 diseases common to man and swine which led the father of the Jews 

 to condemn pork as human food ? Both questions can be answered 

 in the negative ; and the apparently slender grounds on which pigs 

 were fii-st regarded as unclean are stated in the following verse : — 

 ' And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the 

 cud, it is unclean unto you : ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor 

 touch their dead carcase.' The wisdom of the Mosaic law can only 

 be justly estimated with a knowledge of the accidents arising in 

 warm countries from eating pork throughout long and hot periods 

 of the year ; and there is no doubt that the direct evil results as 

 manifested by human sickness led to the exclusion of pork from 

 the list of Israehtish viands. The masses of measly pork which 

 may be seen hanging from the butchers' stalls in Southern Europe 

 prove that the long-legged swine which hunt the forests for acorns, 

 and rove about to pick up aU kinds of offal, are often unfit for 

 human food, and that they were so to no less extent in the land of 

 Israel is probable." As regards the Mosaic opinions on these points, 

 and more especially on the question as to the parasitic nature of 

 the " fiery serpents" of the wilderness, I may remark that this 

 subject has been most ably and fully discussed by Kiichenmeister 

 in his well-known treatise on human and animal parasites. The 

 prevalence of trichinous disease in this country, however, as I 

 have already attempted to show, is a matter of much higher practi- 

 cal importance, and, consequently, Mr, Gamgee' s observations on 

 this latter score are still more cogent : — " It is interesting," he says, 



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