Posted on 03/30/2016 7:03:46 PM PDT by null and void
And you’re in Florida! More salt for the wound...
*sigh*
[...] and every one knows that some young bucks among the epicures, by continually dining upon calves' brains, by and by get to have a little brains of their own, so as to be able to tell a calf's head from their own heads; which, indeed, requires uncommon discrimination.
So, by dining upon whale brains, the "young bucks" themselves acquire more brains... as a result of which they become more and more discriminating... to the point that they can then distinguish a calf's head from their own heads.
Seems clear enough to me: The author is claiming (quite facetiously, I might add!) that dining upon whale brains increases the diner's I.Q.!
And the hypothesis that this passage may have alluded to some neurological disease spread by eating brain matter (vCJD)? Preposterous!
Regards,
Yes, it is mid 19th century humor so it is a little flowery and dense. This is not a early citation of a brain eating disease. I think the person got mixed up reading “calf” and brains.
Trumpinator is correct in his interpretation! = I have an education filled with the writings of dead white men’s words. You know, the good stuff.
Poor guy, striking out all around this evening.
I’m actually a stay at home mom now. Gave up my career to stay home with the little one. Still keep my license active though.
There are scores of calf’s head recipes in mid 19th century American cook books, baked, broiled, boiled with and without the skin.
Not whale calves, but baby cows.
I did misread the effects of eating them as opposite of what Melville intended, though.
You're a real-estate agent?
Regards,
Some days you’re the hammer...
As you say.
Professional civil engineer
In Moby Dick it is whales they eat. Wales were considered very intelligent even then. Cows - dumb creatures.
Scrapie was the first prion related disease dating back to 1730.
Prions and Prion disease
Prion diseases, also known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE’s) are a group of progressive neurodegenerative conditions. These illnesses exist in both animals and humans. Scrapie, a disease affecting sheep and goats, was the first prion disease to be identified in the 1730s. In more recent years other prion diseases have been seen in animals, the most common of which is bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Various forms of the disease have been identified since Creutzfeldt and Jakob first described the illness later known as CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) in the 1920s. These diseases in humans are now grouped together according to whether they are sporadic, inherited, or acquired.
“In the case of a small Sperm Whale the brains are accounted a fine dish.”
Sperm Whales are bovines? I never knew.
I saw an episode of Magnum PI where Magnum was quarantined for Ebola.
“in flavor somewhat resembling calves’ head, which is quite a dish among some epicures; and every one knows that some young bucks among the epicures, by continually dining upon calves’ brains”
Cavles’ head, clearly differentiated from a whale’s brains, else there would be no point in saying in effect: calves’ head somewhat resembles calves’ head.
He was giving his landlubber readers a comparison of whale brains, to which they would have no familiarity, to calves’ head which they would.
In the absence of universal refrigeration, it’s very unlikely a whale’s brain would be edible by the time it made landfall from a 3 year whaling voyage, isn’t it?
All the whalers brought back was some baleen, carved sperm whale teeth and barrel after barrel incorruptible rendered whale oil, no slabs of whale steak, brains, or livers.
Although Melville does mention that locally caught right whale tongue was regarded as a delicacy in the king’s court, even that was hardly common fair his readers would know.
Not what I said. I said (bovine) calves’ head was said to cause the epicures to lose there marbles.
I have been carefully trying to say that these are full bovine heads and making every effort to distinguish them from whale brains
OTOH, I did misread Meleville to say that the (bovine) calves’ heads lowered, rather that raised the schmarts of the epicures.
The whale in that chapter, the one that raised the topic, was a adult, not a (whale) calf.
Not that it’s confusing to use the same word to describe the young of an ungulate and the young of an animal that doesn’t even have legs...
Sorry, I misread what you said.
In any case he was not describing mad cow disease or any disease. So that point is moot.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.