Similar accidents have occurred at different periods in Paris; upon which occasions, the police officers visited the pig-dealers, and were perfectly assured that the animals had never been fed with unwholesome food; the use of poison for rats, with which these places abound, was interdicted, and every precaution taken. What, then, asks M. Cadet, is this poison found in sausages - is it Prussic acid - is it a new matter? It is evidently not the effect of putrefaction, since it exists in meat perfectly well preserved. To the above queries of M. Cadet, I beg to add one more - may not the skin enclosing the meat have been the part in which the poison resided? It is well known that the bodies of animals who die diseased are capable of communicating fatal diseases to the human species; and experience has shown that such animal poison is particularly energetic in those parts that are commonly called the Offals, in which term are included the intestines. In the History of fish-poison above alluded to, we have numerous instances of dogs, cats, hogs, and birds, dying from eating these parts, while persons who have partaken of the fish to which those offals belonged, remained uninjured.

Moreover, to account for the deleterious change of which those parts appear to be occasionally susceptible, it is not in the least necessary to suppose that the animal died in a state of disease. Captain Scoresby, in his account of the "Arctic Regions," states that, although the flesh of the bear is both agreeable and wholesome, the liver of that animal is poisonous: sailors who had inadvertently eaten it, were almost always sick after it, and some actually died; while in others, the cuticle has peeled off their bodies. The Ancients appear to have entertained a fear with regard to the whole-someness of the viscera of certain animals, and of the fluids which they secrete. Pliny says that the Gall of a horse was accounted poison; and therefore at the sacrifices of horses at Rome, it was unlawful for the Flumen (Priest) to touch it. Sir B. Brodie lately communicated a fact to me, which, in my opinion, goes far to support the idea I have just stated as to the possible source of poison in sausages. He says that he has, on several occasions, met with evidence of the acrid and poisonous nature of "Dogs' Meat" as sold in the streets of London; which manifested itself by producing ulcerations, of a peculiar and distinct character, on the hands, accompanied with swellings in the axillae, of the venders.

This fact is well worthy of further inquiry, and might even lead to some new and important conclusions respecting the origin of hydrophobia.

203. In eating some species of fish, as the pike, it is essential that the small bones should be carefully extracted; the swallowing of them is likely to irritate the alimentary membrane, and instances are recorded in which fistula has been thus produced.

204. It has been usual to attribute all the cutaneous affections which follow the liberal use of fish as depending upon the sympathy of the skin with the stomach. This, I believe, is, in general, the true explanation, since the effect is merely temporary; and when the process of digestion is finished, it departs. Its departure may even be hastened by the operation of an emetic removing the noxious aliment. At the same time, the fact must not be overlooked, that the oily principle, upon which depends the odour of certain fish, is absorbed from the alimentary canal, and carried into the blood; this is evident from the peculiar flavour of the flesh of certain birds who live upon fish: from the ready access which the hogs in Cornwall have to pilchards, the pork of that county is very commonly deteriorated by a fishy savour. It is also well known, that persons confined for any length of time to a diet of fish, secrete a sweat of a rancid smell. It is not, therefore, improbable, that certain cutaneous diseases may be produced, or at least aggravated, by such diet; and in hot climates this effect may be less questionable.

The priests of Egypt may therefore have been prohibited from eating fish upon just principles, in order that the leprosy might be averted; and the great legislator of the Jews was, no doubt, influenced by some such belief, when he framed his celebrated prohibition 1.

205. It is usual to add various condiments to fish, and many of them are doubtless thus rendered more digestible, by affording a necessary stimulus to the stomach; but rich sauces are ever to be avoided by the valetudinarian. Vinegar and salt, perhaps, form the best additions.

206. The mode of cooking fish is another circumstance of some importance; frying them in lard or oil, is an objectionable process. In general, the process of boiling is best adapted to render them wholesome. Stewed fish, with all the usual additions of glutinous and stimulant materials, are extremely injurious to dyspeptics. The objections which were urged against salted meats apply to salted fish; they are, however, rendered less injurious by a plentiful admixture of potatoes: indeed, this esculent root, with perhaps the exception of parsnip, is the only vegetable that should accompany a meal of any species of fish; and it will be well for the invalid to abstain, upon such occasions from fruit. Cullen says, that, by way of experiment, he has taken apples after fish; but he always found that his digestion was disturbed by them. Milk may be considered as another incompatible aliment; the most serious diarrhoea has followed such a mixture.

1 Leviticus, xi. 9 - 12.