Not so historic, but interesting nonetheless....

When I was an undergraduate doing a course in internal parasitology, there
was a guy who insisted that the pig round worm (Ascaris suum), although
looking for all intents the same as a human round worm (another Ascaris
sp..), were not the same deal. To prove this he figured on testing the
ability of the former to set up shop in a human host (ie himself). To this
end he proposed to ingest a large number of adult and juvenile worms (adults
contained fertile eggs and some small ones might survive the stomach and
grow). If they were suited to human conditions then he could expect to rear
a new crop or at least have some survive. The assembled "specimens" were
put on a large burger bun and wolfed down - with only a little gagging I am
told. These things are up to 1 foot long, 1/4 inch thick and of a gristly
consistency much tougher than an earthworm as it is a nematode.

The good news was that when the researcher "de-wormed himself" at an
appropriate later date, there were in fact no Ascaris round worms to be
found in the stuff flushed from his gut. He completed his PhD and is
presumably somewhere out in the workforce today.

Now there's someone who gave his all for science!

PS Earthworms in fact would be quite hard to eat as they are full of grit -
living as they do on a diet of soil matter. People have suggested that
reasonable results may be possible if they are allowed to "purge" without
soil for a couple of days.
I suppose this is like the practice of letting eels from muddy streams sit
in the water tank for a couple of days before killing and cooked.


"Ralf Dieholt" > wrote in message
om...
> I think there must be many good recipes for worms, since our ancestors
> ate worms and worms are very healthy ?