599 
1881.] Sanitary Legislation of the Pentateuch. 
The enactment is surely in complete harmony with the 
teachings of modern science. We know that the circulatory 
system has a double office : on the one hand it serves to con- 
vey fresh matter to supply the wear and tear of the system, 
whilst on the other hand it serves to carry off what may be 
popularly called the waste or refuse of the body. Such refuse 
is in due course eliminated by means of the kidneys, the 
sudiparous glands, &c., and appears then in its avowed 
character of excrementitious matter. It is therefore evident 
that the blood if drawn off promiscuously, arterial and 
venous together, contains a certain proportion of effete sub- 
stances which are only fit to be expelled, and which are ill- 
suited for human food. If by any derangement the aCtion 
of the kidneys is arrested, this refuse accumulates in the 
blood, and the consequences at once make themselves felt. 
Now as to separate the arterial from the venous blood of a 
slaughtered animal is impracticable, we contend that to use 
the blood as food approximates very closely to drinking 
urine, and is not merely loathsome but pro tanto unsafe. 
That, like liquid and solid excrements, it is valuable for 
plant-food, and that it serves as a pabulum for certain 
classes of animals, is no proof that it is fit for human con- 
sumption. 
Even the mechanical state of blood when coagulated is a 
strong argument against its dietetic use. Unlike flesh, it is 
not composed of fibres between which the gastric juice can 
easily penetrate. It is a solid structureless mass like caout- 
chouc, which can only be aCted upon from the outside of each 
fragment, thus rendering . the process of digestion more 
difficult. 
Turning from theory to practical experience, we refer to 
the higher value — in an actuary’s sense of the word — of 
Jewish lives than of those of their Gentile neighbours inha- 
biting the same locality and engaged in avocations little dif- 
ferent. Is not this recognised superiority on the part of the 
Jew due, in part at least, to their hereditary avoidance of 
blood during the course of three thousand years ? 
It is generally admitted that the internal organs of ani- 
mals — such as the kidneys, the liver, &c. — are of question- 
able value as articles of food. They are, as we learn from 
carcase-butchers, very frequently in a diseased state, and are 
apt to be the seat of entozoa. We have not succeeded in 
ascertaining whether these parts are avoided by the Jews at 
the present day. But the law seems perfectly clear (Leviticus, 
iii., 15, et passim) that in all cases of beasts sacrificed the 
“ inwards ” must be destroyed by fire. 
