RATS AS HUMAN FOOD. 
125 
ness that s, blushing rose opens amid the spangling dews on 
a morning in June. Yet, as the completion of my under- 
taking compels me to a mature consideration of the present 
point inRatology, I must crave a little leniency or indulgence, 
as I am about to handle perhaps the most loathsome subject 
in the whole range of human dietetics ; and I wish to do it 
so as not to disturb even the most delicate stomach or 
squeamish antipathy of the most sensitive or fastidious of the 
human family. 
There was a curious anecdote current some few years since, 
to the effect that, at the conclusion of the Chinese war, the 
British admiral, prior to his departure for England, was 
invited on shore to dine with Commissioner Lyn, one of the 
Chinese dignitaries. No sooner had he and his officers 
arrived, than the dinner was served up ; and the admiral 
and the commissioner were seated on opposite sides of the 
table, according to European custom ; but the interpreter, 
for some reason not assigned, was absent. The covers were 
removed, and all was steaming temptation. The commis- 
sioner smiled, and rubbed his hands with evident satisfaction ; 
but not so the admiral, for his mind seemed brimful of re- 
flective considerations. Nevertheless, being very hungry, he 
helped himself most unceremoniously to half the contents of 
a dish in front of him ; and, after eating the meat, and pick- 
I ing the bones with the utmost relish, he quaffed a goblet of 
wine, then plunged his fork into the remaining half ; when, 
i all of a sudden, his attention was arrested as to what he was 
I eating. This brought him to a dead stand- still ; while sad 
misgivings rushed through his mind as to whether it was a 
dog, duck, or dolphin. Still he never recollected having met 
with leg bones in a fish before — then it was quite clear it 
; was not a fish. What then was it ? a beast or a bird ? 
i There was the problem ! and from his sunken expression of 
countenance, it required instant solving ; not so much to 
give his stomach a relish for the remainder as to retain what 
he had already eaten. But how was the matter to be ex- 
plained, since the commissioner and the admiral could not 
understand each other ia a single word, and unhappily the 
interpreter had not yet arrived. What was to be done ? 
Here the admiral's ingenuity, to a certain extent, overcame 
the difficulty ; for to make himself understood he had 
