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RELATIONS OF FOOD AND DISEASE. 
Returning to the question of diseased food, and assuming 
for the moment that contagious diseases are transmitted to 
man through this medium, what, we would inquire, are the 
circumstances w T hich favour, what are those which hinder, 
such transmissions ? Will a portion of the worst form of 
diseased food, after being subjected through its whole 
structure to the boiling temperature, by any possibility con- 
vey disease? Judging from experiments on the effects of 
heat upon smallpox virus, the answer, a priori , would be 
against such a proposition; but “ the proof of the ‘ poison 5 
lies in the eating / 5 and the proof has not been given. 
Assuming, further, that diseased animal food may, after 
exposure to heat, retain its elements of disease, the effect of 
digestion upon it must not escape attention. Snake-poison 
received into the body through a wound soon does its work, 
but received into the stomach is simply innocuous. A prick 
from a needle charged with an infinitesimal dose of some 
unknown agent in the dead human body, is often a deadly, 
and is always a dreaded poison. Yet cannibals feast on their 
brothers, and are none the more unhealthy for the repast, or, 
at all events, are not poisoned. It would be rather difficult 
to suppose, after the experiments of Majendie, that putrid 
venison could be thrown into the body by inoculation without 
producing poisonous effects ; yet your high venison eater 
takes with impunity an animal diet which, in the most literal 
sense, may be said to have been dead and alive again. We 
are informed by Professor Spooner that he has administered 
the virus of glanders to animals, by the mouth, without any 
harm whatever resulting. But a point of this virus inserted 
into the flesh is sufficient to propagate the disorder in all 
its virulence. 
The contemplation of such subjects as those we have thus 
briefly sketched out suggests, doubtless, various perplexities, 
and the idea of an amount of work which must be anything 
but pleasant to the superficial and idle. Still, from what is 
known, little can be said at present regarding any of the 
difficulties referred to. Smallpox, in a modified form, may 
be transmitted to the human subject from the cow by inocu- 
lation ; by the same process, glanders may be transmitted 
from the horse, and rabies from the dog. These are, perhaps, 
the only positive facts we possess about transmission. Next, 
in their approach to a positive position, are the new and 
important views on the transmission of parasites. There are 
so many men who have agreed in observation, as in argument, 
on this point, and the evidence brought forward by them is 
so irresistible that it must be well nigh conceded as a fact in 
