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REVIEW— THE PIG. 
The history of the pig, or domestic hog — hog being his generic 
appellation — is found to be curious enough when we come to turn 
over old and ancient tomes in which mention is made of him. By 
the Romans he was held in great esteem. They, like ourselves, 
had discovered the luscious flavour of swine’s flesh, and, in order 
that they might obtain it in the highest degree of perfection, had 
constituted “ the art of breeding, rearing, and fattening pigs, a 
study, which they designated porculatio .” And herein they car- 
ried their epicurism even farther than our modern cattle-shewers 
do ; since they not only fed them with the most fattening aliment, 
but even crammed and drenched them, and all “ to produce a 
diseased and monstrous-sized liver.” This puts us in mind of 
some continental gourmands of our own day, who stuff or cram 
their geese in order to produce that delicacy they so much prize, 
un foie gras. 
To the Jews, on the contrary, the pig was a proscribed animal. 
By the law of Moses they were forbidden to eat swine’s flesh ; 
and this law is rigidly observed even by the Jews of the present 
day, “ though the presumed cause of prohibition has long ceased 
to exist.” What that “cause” w'as — whether it arose out of the 
“ extreme filthiness,” by nature, of swine, or out of a “leprosy” 
the Jews once suffered from severely, and to which the hog is 
likewise subject; or whether such a prohibition, among many 
others, was instituted for the sake of making the Jews what they 
have continued up to the present hour to be, viz., “ a peculiar 
people,” is matter of dispute among ancient writers ; though, in 
whatever it originated, “ the aversion” has descended not only to 
the Jews of modern times, but to Egyptians, and the followers of 
Mahommed as well. 
Dull and stupid as the pig, grunting and groping about, appears 
to the ordinary observer to be, he is far from being wanting either 
in sagacity or docility. The feats of Toby, “ the learned pig,” as 
he was called, are too fresh in the recollection of all frequenters 
of our fairs to need more than reminder here; and those who 
have read Daniel’s “ Rural Sports,” will remember his interesting 
narrative of the sow trained by Toomer, gamekeeper to Sir Harry 
Mild may, to find game, and to stand and back at the same time. 
“ Some thirty years since it was mentioned in the public papers 
that a gentleman had trained swine to run in his carriage, and 
draw four-in-hand through London with these curious steeds. 
And not long since the market-place at St. Albans was com- 
pletely crowded in consequence of an eccentric old farmer, who 
resided a few miles off, having entered it in a small chaise-cart 
drawn by four hogs at a brisk trot, which pace they kept up a few 
times around the area of the market-place. They were then 
