The Ways of the Orchids. 387 



danger of using their flesh for food is exceedingly great, and 

 very numerous cases of severe disorder and death are on record, 

 both here and on the Continent. With reference to pleuro- 

 pneumonia, which brings so many beasts prematurely to the 

 shambles, it is satisfactory to learn that although the flesh is 

 deteriorated, it " cannot be called poisonous •" and strange as 

 it may seem, the occurrence of this disorder has furnished the 

 milkmen with a profitable mode of carrying on their trade. 

 Professor Gamgee says, " In the city of Edinburgh there are 

 dairymen who never knew what it was to make money until 

 pleuropneumonia appeared. They originally paid £10 or £15 

 for a rich-milking Ayrshire, which they kept a twelvemonth or 

 more. They now pay £25 or £30 for a fat crossbred short- 

 horn cow, which they calculate on selling diseased within three 

 months from entering their dairy, and they find the latter 



system most profitable They have gone so far as to say, 



Ci We do not want disease out of the country ; it is keeping 

 everything high." 



We need not pursue the subject further, especially as the 

 valuable papers of Dr. Cobbold have exposed the dangers of 

 introducing parasites in company with food. We will, how- 

 ever, observe, on the authority of Professor Gamgee, that many 

 persons suffer from tape-worm through indulging in a nasty 

 propensity for eating raw pork. Our benevolence does not 

 prevent our saying, " served them right ; " but while such 

 savage feeding may have its appropriate reward, we must enter 

 a strong protest in favour of those who are poisoned against 

 their will. 



THE WAYS OF THE OECHIDS .* 



Orchids are universal favourites : the children love to pick 

 them in the meadows, and they occupy the place of honour in 

 the costly conservatory. They combine beauty with grotesque- 

 ness, strangeness with elegance, to an extent not paralleled by 

 any other tribe of plants ■ and now that they have secured an 

 eloquent and erudite interpreter in the person of Mr. Charles 

 Darwin, they make their appearance as Floral Professors, 

 delivering to us the profoundest lectures on methods of adapta- 

 tion, theories of evolution, and other wondrous mysteries of 

 organization and life. Mr. Darwin is one of the few writers 

 so possessed with his subject as to be incapable of circumlocu- 

 tion. He speaks out of the fulness of his heart and brain, and 



* On the Various Contrivances oy ivhich British and Foreign Orchids are Ferli- 

 tilized oy Insects, and on the Good Effects of Intercrossing, by Charles Darwin, 

 M.A., F.K.S., etc. London: John Murray. 1862. 



