The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1859-02-10
PRoPHR UsE oF PoRK AarooD.

The Scientific American having On
dorsed the opinion that 'a fat hog is
the very quintescence Of scrofula and
cnrbonic acid gas, and that fat pork was
never designed for human food, making
no red meat or muscle" etc, Dr. Uol-
ston, Of GAINESVILLE, Who is one of the
most intelligent physicians Of Ohio,
wrote to the Courier
A fat hog is truly the quintcscence Of
scrofula, for scrota in Greek is bag. and
the dcrivative scrolulus means hoggisL
The disease, sorOiula, was so called wheu
medical science was in its infancy, from
its supposed resemblance, TO some dis.
ease of the hog, and then the Inference
was easy, that eating the hog (sToto)
produced the hog-disease (scrofula)-
It is we'll known, however, that our
American Indians, and the Hiudoos,
who never use pork, are liable TO this
disease; that 10 Europe it prevails chief
Iy among the ill-fcd poor, who hardly
taste meat Of any kind.
On the other hand the Ciinaman,
and our own pioneers, who hardly eat
any other flesh, are remarkably healthy,
and exempt from scrolula--a disease We
have much more reason to suspect as
originating long ago, from the hcredita-
ry taint of an unmentonable disease, fu-
vored by irregular living and poor Diet
In the South, from their sleek appear
auce, and exemption from scroiula, you
can at once distinguish the bucon.fcd
negro
These examples may suffice on thut
head. Fat pork is not, In any sense,
carbonic acid but hydro carbon. com
bination of hydrogen and carbon It
becomes carbonic acid and wator by con-
bining with oxygen in the act Of being
burned or digested which is much the
same thing-giviug off during those
processes large amounts Of heat and
light.
Tt is true the fat Of PORK does not
make blood or red flesh, though the
lean, which is always eaten alone, does
1t is as your article says truly, material
for breath. Well, that is a good deal
1t is supposed that if the writer's
breath had stopped FIVE minutes before
he took his pen, we should never have
seen his article on fat pork.
But it does more. All the fat that
goes into the stomach, and thence into
the blood, does not undergo slow burn
ing, but is deposited in the body as
human fat. Now a certain amount Of
fat is necessary for the proper play of all
the parts, muscles included; for with
out it the body, like an ungrcascd en-
gine, wears itself out by its own fric-
ton. In consumption, the waste Of fat
is one alarming and most dangerous
symptom, and the far-famed cod liver oil
acts, perhaps, chiefly by supplying the
blood with fat.
I am satisfied by experience that
fat pork, when the stomach will receive
it--does just as well. Moreover few
of those delicate persons that have so
great an aversion to pork, or other fat,
ever live to see forty years. They die
young of consumption, Butter sugar,
starch, vegetable oils, act to some extent
as animal fat, and in tropical climates
are used as substitutes.
But 90 to the Arctic regions and see
the refined DR.. Kane, and his men, de-
your raw wolrus Llubbcr with q gusto.
as we would lake a dish Of icc-crcam.
and you will conclude that fiat pork,
particularly in our Arctic winters, is
not so bad an institution.
We could not live on fat pork alone
nor on sugar and starch-though wo
could on bread Breed, the s,qB Of itr,
contains the materials, both for breath
ing, and making blood and rcd flesh,
(musole) in a superemiueut degree,
greater even than lean beef, on any 9th
er single article of food; and this, or
some substitute, such as beans, peas,
potatoes, etc, is always eaten with ia5
pork, so that there is sufficient supply
of blood and Aesh-muking MATERIAL
However, excess is bad, and the fat
pork must not constitute the bulk Of
meal.
Chemical analysis is q poor substitute
for the observation Of lacts in the living
body, nor can we even base vely much
on experiments made on Mr. Martin,
the man with the hole in his stomach,
by which food may be introduced, and
digestion observed; for that is natures
way of getting it there and stomach
with such an unnatural opening, is
much like leaky dinuer-pot with a
hole in the bottom, stuffed with rag
Extended experience alone can settle
such a question.
The Greeks aud Romans esteem pork
as luxury, and a most wholesome di-
et their athletes and gladiators (prize
fighters) were fed on pork. Our own
Saxon (Teutonic SCandiuayiau) anccs-
tors esteem it so highly that they even
in their heaven, provided great hog
with golden bristles, called Gullibotsth,
of whose bacon the heroes of Walhalla
dined every day, when at night tho
picked bones again united and became
covered with a fresh supply OF iat pork.
In this estimate of the hog, the mass of
mankind, not Of the Shcmitc race,
(Jews, Turks, Arabs, etc., Who follow
Moses law, that had spiritual and rep
resentative meaning, have in an ages
agreed, and viii agree as long as man
has canine teeth, and lives by draaotng
his breath. Whenever the SCIENTIFIC
American or Prof Liebig win discover
n new process Of living without breath
ling, We may be guided by their opmioni
till thon, j opino, good corn Jed lan1