The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-08 00:00:00

raw by the lower classes. le Italy raw ham is con-
-1 } sidered a delicacy ; is Ene land working men fre-
quteetiv indulge in uncooked bacon, and soneetin_ee
in pork sausages that are innocent of the flying pan.
Tae danger of the practice is made startliugiy ap-
parent when we learn that the muscular flesh ut
swine is sometimes brought into so poisonous a stale
by the ravages of a minute species of thread worm,
invisible except by the aid of the microscope, that a
small quantity eaten raw will destroy life. Pork
and bacon are purchased by our poorer classes per-
haps to a greater extent than any other meat, and
the prevalence of measles and the various forms of
hydatid disease amongst those classes may doubt-
less be attributed in a considerable degree to their
large consumption of swine's flesh. Sausages are
especially perilous, for it is well known that
the less reputable sausage makers think no meat
too bad to make up in this deceptive form, pro-
vided the nastiness can be disguised by spices and
condiments. One is almost tempted, after the
revelations we have had of late years, to follow
the example of the Jews, and vote the pig an un-
clean animal hopelessly and for ever. Much RS
we have done for him in the way of cleanliness, be
still continues as great a source of disease to the
human subject as he was in the time of Moses under
the burning sun of the East. The propagation of
parasitical ova from impure animals is effected,
moreover, in many ways besides the direct one, and
sometimes, according to Mr. Simon's report, by a
route that would never have been suspected by the
unlearned. For, "by means of dogs and other ani-
mals eating the raw offal of slaughter-houses, the
eggs of the tapeworm may, and must often, find.
their way into sources of drinking water, or on to
various low-growing vegetables or fruits, which are
consumed in an uncooked state by man, and, being
swallowed, the egg is hatched." The development
of entozoa is, indeed, extremely subtle, and very
difficult to be guarded against; but infected food is
undoubtedly one of the means by which the evil is
introduced into the human system. The question
is of serious importance; for, according to the esti-
mate of Mr. Gamgee, disease of one kind or another
is fatal every year in the three kingdoms to about
375,000 eattle (nearly five per cent. of the whole
number), while in the case of sheep and pigs the
proportion is, respectively, as far as can be ascer-
tained, four per cent. and three per cent. It is
very certain that a large number of these animals
are sold for food ; and even of those beasts that are
slaughtered many are already in a state of disease,
and would probably die of their ailments if the
butcher's knife did not anticipate the result. It
has been found in a large convict establishment that
an epidemic of boils and carbuncles followed the use
of meat from cattle afflicted with lung disease.
Milk from unhealthy cows is also chargeable with
some of the maladies which human beings have to
endure. We may, in fact, be said to live over again
the lives of those animals from which we draw our
sustenance, and to be healthy or diseased in pro-
portion to the bodily condition of the creatures we
rear for food. It was a quaint expression, but not
an untruthful or ludicrous thought, on the part of
old mystical Sir Thomas Browne, when he said
that all the flesh of our bodies has at one time
been upon our platters. We have, therefore, the
deepest interestin seeing that what comes to our plat-
ters is in a fit state to be converted into its higher
form, How is the mischief to be prevented ? Mr.
Gamgee is of opinion that sufficient precautions are
not taken against infection from foreign cattle ;
that there is a great deal of dietetic mismanage-
ment ; and that animals often contract disease from
the malaria of fenny lands. The first of these
sources of depreciation might perhaps be guarded
against by some species of quarantine; the second by
increased knowledge amongst graziers and farmers;
the last by the conversion of marsh lands into well-
drained meadows. We are only just waking to the
conviction that excessive fat is not a healthy sign
in man or beast. The corpulent oxen, sheep, and
pigs that are exhibited every Christmas at the Prize
Cattle Show are animals in a state of disease, how-
ever much it may please our testal mood to make
pets of them; cad, although there has lately been
a movement in favour of a more rational ttleile of
feeding, the old absurdity has not yet died out.
This and other errors can only be corrected by time.
In the meanwhile we must protect ourselves to the
best of our ability ; and we have a right to demand
how it is that, with a system of inspection, so much
bad moat should find its way to the tables of the
community. Every now and then, in some exces-
sive instance, we hear of a seizure being made; but
when we find that nearly 50,000 measly pigs are
cut up for human provender, with tainted oxen and
sheep in proportion—that, in short, one-fifth part
of our animal food is corrupt--it is very evident
that the present system of inspection is a farce.
Without suggesting that the examiners are open to
persuasion, it is probable that they are not men of
sufficient education to detect the subtle poison that
'sometimes lurks in seemingly healthy carcases. In
some of the worst eases the symptoms of disease
may he such as to escape the eye of any but the
man of science. Skilled veterinary surgeons are the
persons to whose scrutiny the meat we are destined
to consume should be submitted. A little expense
is nothing compared with the preservation of the
national health, and the avoidance of evils which
are sickening to contemplate and grievous to suffer.
POST.—The numerical inequality of the contest between
the Confederates and the Federals appears likely to be re-
dressed in a somewhat unexpected manner. It has been
obvious, from the beginning of the war, that the former
possessed a latent element of strength which the rigour of
their own prejudices, and the difficulty attending its deve-
lopment, would prevent them from calling into action, ex-
cept under the pressure of a great emergency. The great
slaveholding aristocracy of the South have been very un-
willing to confer upon the black population what a superior
nation seems intuitively to deem the dignity of bearing
arms, but have hitherto entertained the same prejudice as
that felt by the Turks towards their subordinate rayah
races. To a certain extent, indeed, the Confederates have
already made the experiment of forming and equipping
negro regiments. But this was tried only on the most in-
significant scale. Events meanwhile have thickened. The
great superiority of the North in point of numbers has at
length begun to tell upon the fortunes of a campaign in
which the heroism and martial character of the South had
at first seemed likely to prove invincible. The inequality
between a nation of some six millions and a nation of above
twenty millions, has neces-arily become more manifest, now
that increasing armies have been required on either side,
and great loses have been so frequently sustained on both.
By degrees, the sources of recruiting have diminished
among the whites in the South; while the tide of emigra-
tion from Europe to the North, which even the warfare of
the day has net wholly arrested, has been swelling the
numbers at the disposal of a Northern conscription. The
President ol the Confederate States has therefore, it appears,
resolved, in concurrence with the governors of the indivi-
dual States, to call out an army of half a njillion of slaves.
This giant resolution is onlyin proportion to the emergency
of the hour. Of course it was impossible to apply the com-
pulsion which has been exercised on both sides among the
dominant raee. The negroes therefore are offered a substan-
tial incentive. Ira all probability it is ono which will prove
sufficient. They are promised their liberty, and a grant of 50
acres of land on the termination of I be war, as a reward of their
pres4nt services in the field. Independently of the obvious
importance of such a measure in directly strengthening the
heeds of the Confederate commanders, there are many other
consideratiot s which combine to render the present resolu
tion a masterpiece of policy. In the first place, it involves
a vast inroad on the part of the Southerners themselves
upon the principle of slavery. Such a measure, therefore,
must revive the sympathies of Europe with the Southern
cause, by lessening, or even abolishing, the only counter-
acting influence to its general popularity on this side of the
Atlantic. Again, it has long seemed to be a slur upon the
domestic institutions of the South that the nation were, to
all appearance, afraid of arming their slaves. One argu-
ment of the Southern States, in defence of slavery, has
long been that slaves under good masters were quite as well
off and as content as free labourers under good employers.
But the taunt, nevertheless, remained in the mouth of every
Pennsylvanian or Lancashire abolitionist, that, in spite of
the alleged well-being of the slave, his master was afraid to
trust him with arms in his own service. If the slaves were
really not otherwise than attached to their lords, the lords
would combine them with themselves for the defence of
their country. By the present resolution, however, the
Confederate authorities are ready to trust the use of arms
to a body of men whom they have already in the field of
their own countrymen. Nor is this all, The spectacle of
negro regiments being raised by the North to fight against
the South, while no adequate counter-demonstration
existed, served to strike Europe with the notion that the
slaveholders were the natural enemies of the negroes, and
the North their natural friends. Illusory as this conclusion
really was, it still remained plausible. Moreover, there
remained a danger that the appearance of Northern black
regiments on the fields of Southern battle might lead the
slaves of the Confederate States, if still engaged neerely in
agricultural occupations, to a natural atlinitY of feeling with
them. This danger has, itt f4O-,
beco'le a-very great one.
Besides, whatever were really tke spirit in which the en-
slaved negro of the South looked upon the dominant popu-
lation around him,
the Placing of confidence in him waslikely
to strengthenthe tiea.hetWeen him and his master. In this
consideration, ehet there was a moral victory at stake, as
betwe 6onth
North, The Washington Government
had Aong threatened to play a decisive card by calling upon
the whole of this slave population to revolt against the
whites, and thus to carry carnage and rapine into every
hearth, That Mr. Lincoln has not actually taken this
course is probably to be ascribed less to his concern for the
atrocity of such a transaction than to his consciousness of
his inability to carry out the threat. But his declaration,
nevertheleas, stands on record as a boast of the Washington
Government that they could at any time terminate the re-
bellion by raising a servile war, When Feargus O'Connor
brought together his 100,000 ruffians on Kennington-com-
mon, and was unexpectedly met by double the. number of
special constables on the other side of the bridges, it was
said that his demonstration was reversed. The same result,