602 Sanitary Legislation of the Pentateuch . [October, 
The prohibition of mollusca, — or, as they are familiarly 
called, shell-fish, and as we should interpret the passages in 
question, of crustaceans, such as the crab, lobster, and 
shrimp — may perhaps be considered needless. But not a 
few shell-fish, such as the common muscle and even the 
oyster, are at times capriciously unwholesome and even 
poisonous. The Crustacea are not merely notoriously foul 
feeders — the shrimp being sometimes spoken of as the 
“ scavenger of ocean ” — but their flesh is decidedly hard to 
digest. The snail is specially prohibited by name. Certain 
species of this animal are eaten in modern Europe and rank 
as a delicacy. But as they devour herbs poisonous to man, 
and feed greedily upon carrion and upon human excrement, 
their use as food is something more than questionable. It 
has been contended in reply that an animal which nourishes 
itself on poisonous or loathsome matter is not necessarily on 
that account poisonous or loathsome. There is some force 
in this remark in the case of a large animal, where the sto- 
mach and intestinal canal, with their undigested or half- 
digested contents can easily be removed before the body is 
eaten. But in such small creatures as snails and shrimps 
such an operation could not be performed without a degree 
of anatomical skill and an outlay of time not to be expedted 
from the ordinary run of cooks. Besides, it is too much to 
assume that an animal feeding on foul, morbid, and un- 
wholesome matter maybe in itself wholesome. The flavour 
and the odour of animal food, meat, milk, butter, &c., are 
most perceptibly affedted by the diet of the beast from which 
they are obtained, and there is hence a strong probability 
that the flesh of a poison- or carrion-feeder will be more or 
less unwholesome. 
The hare is included among the prohibited species. Un- 
like many of its fellow rodents, it is not carnivorous, but it 
eats many vegetable poisons, such as the bark of the 
mezereon. It would be very interesting to ascertain in what 
animals, after death, the volatile organic poisons now known 
as ptomaines are most readily developed ? It is possible 
that in this respedt a difference might be found in favour of 
the “ clean ” beasts and birds of the Mosaic law. 
As far, therefore, as food is concerned, we see in some 
instances very sufficient physiological reasons for certain of 
the prohibitions, and we have grounds for suspedting at least 
that in other cases these regulations may be equally well- 
founded. Certain it is that the Jews by the avoidance of 
blood, of the flesh of unclean beasts, &c., have reached a 
standard of health higher than that of the Gentile nations ! 
