Cohn, Jacob. The Royal Table - VWC: Faculty/Staff Web

20 THE ROYAL TABLE
from that of clean ones by this sign: clean milk coagulates
and becomes cheese, but it is impossible to make cheese
from milk of unclean animals. 25 The role of the coagulation
of milk in digestion by the aid of the enzyme rennin
is too well known to need amplification. Only fish which
have scales and fins are permitted; all others, including
shellfish and the creeping things of the water, such as
shrimps or lobsters, may not be eaten. Shellfish are known
to thrive in estuaries, in rivers, and near coastlines, where
rubbish and filth are most likely to collect, and where sew-
age is most often discharged. The number of typhoid
epidemics traced to shellfish are in themselves masterly evidence
for the wisdom of this legislation. Mollusks are also
known to be frequent causes of urticaria and other neurotic
skin affections. Thus their prohibition is not at all sur-
prising. 26
An animal which died of itself is prohibited. In such a
iase it is quite likely that the animal had suffered from a
malady from which its death resulted, and this illness might
conceivably be transferable to man. An animal not killed
in the Jewish manner, such as an ox which has been pole-
axed, as is the custom of the gentiles,
contains much con-
gealed blood which is not healthful. The laws regulating
the post-mortem examination of the slaughtered animal
undoubtedly were introduced to insure its having been a
healthy specimen. The lungs are examined for adhesions,
See also Nachmanides, Commentary to Leviticus XI, 13:
im&> *J&D inpimn nmnn D ...nom
rmmrwi nsmn rnnnn 1^10 asi
Nachmanides, ibid-^n> *n WbpJ
* See article by Dr. David Macht in The Jewish Library, ed.
Leo Jung, Vol. II, p. 2iS. Other examples might be ated from
medical literature to which I have no access.