Short Notes and Queries. 



109 



Cooking has little effect upon this parasitic flesh-worm. A portion 

 of human muscle was boiled for five or six minutes, and upon 

 breaking up the cysts, the worms appeared uninjured. I believe that 

 until 1867 not a single ca'se of Trichiniasis had been found in the 

 living human subject in Great Britain, although twenty or thirty had 

 been discovered at post mortem examinations. English pigs, although 

 not quite, are very nearly, free from this parasite. The pig on the 

 continent leads quite a different life to the English pig ; there they 

 roam about and are allowed to eat any kind of offal, &c. Where there 

 has been one case of Trichiniasis discovered in Great Britain, we may 

 find hundreds recorded in Germany, and no doubt the different kind 

 of life the pig usually leads here has a great deal to do with it. As 

 a proof of this we find the Hampshire and Berkshire pigs, which are 

 always kept enclosed in the yards of their breeders, are much more 

 free from Entozoa than the Irish pigs, which are generally allowed to 

 roam about at pleasure. 



Professor Gamgee says : — " Did Moses 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 T These are pertinent questions, and although we have 

 reason to believe with Moses that the pig is an unclean beast, it is 

 evident with care we can improve the race of swine, and thus not only 

 prevent their own, but also human maladies. 



Manchester, Dec, 1876. 



Rare Birds near Halifax. — 

 In the last column of his work on 

 British birds, the Rev. F. 0. Morris 

 in recording instances of Petrels 

 taken in Yorkshire, mentions the 

 fact of a Fork-tailed Petrel having 

 been picked up in Halifax, on Dec. 

 16th, 1832, and also a Storm Petrel 

 captured in the same town in Oct. , 



1846. As a specimen of the former 

 was taken near Halifax, in Oct., 



1847, and another Stormy Petrel 

 was caught alive in Commercial 



Road, on the 21st of last October, 

 it appears that four specimens of 

 these rare birds can be recorded for 

 this district, not three as incorrectly 

 stated at the November Meeting of 

 the Ovenden Naturahsts' Society. 

 The following names of some of the 

 rare species of birds taken in the 

 neighbourhood of Halifax, within 

 the past ten years, may be interest- 

 ing to some of the readers of the 

 "Naturalist." Osprey, Honey 

 Buzzard, Great Grey Shrike, Great 

 Spotted Woodpecker, Quail, Oyster 

 Catcher, Spoonbill, Whimbrel, 

 Knot, Spotted Crane, Water Rail, 



