Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1859-01-19
USE OF PORK AS FOOD.

The Scientific american having endorsed lhe
opinion that ssA fat hog is the very quintes-
sence of scrofula and carbonic acid gas, ana
that fat pork was never designed for human
food, making no red meat or muscle" ETC.,
DR.. Holston, of GAINESVILLE, who is one of the
most intelligent physicians OF Ohio, wrote 10
the Courier as follows:
A fat hog is truly the quintessence of scrof-
ula, for scrofula in Greek is hog, and the de-
rvative scrofulous means hogish. The disease
scrofula was so called when medical science
was in its infancy, from its supposed RESENT
blance TO some disease of the hog, and then
the inference was easy. that eating the hog
(scrofa) produced the hog disease (scrofula.)
1t is well known, however, that our American
Indians and the Hindoos, who never use pork,
are liable to this disease; and that in Europe
it prevails chiefly among the iil-fed poor, who
hardly taste meat of any kind.
Ou the other hand, the Chinaman and our
own pioneers, who hardly eat any other flesh,
are remarkably healthy and exempt from scrof-
ula--a disease we have much more reason 10
suspect as originating long ago from heredita-
ry taint of unmentionable disease, favored
by irregular living and poor diet.
In the South, from their sleek appearance
and exemption from scrofula, you can at once
distinguish the bacon-fed negro.
These examples may suffice on that head.
Fat pork is not in any sense carbonic acid,
but hydro-carbon, combination OF hydrogen
and carbon. 1t becomes carbonic acid and
water by combining with oxygen in the act of
being burned or diSested, which is much the
same thing-giving off during those processes
large amounts of heat and light.
1t is true the fat of tat pork does not make
blood or red flesh, though the lean which is al
ways eaten also, does. Ii is as your article
says truly, material for breath. Well, that is
good deal. 1t is supposed that If the wri-
ter's breath had stopped five minutes before
" "a ShnnlI have
his article on fat pork.
But 1t does more. All the fat that goes IN
to the stomach, and thence into the blood.
does not undergo slow burning in the lungs by
the process of breathing, but is deposited in
the body as human fat. Now a certain amount
of fat is SO necessary for the proper play of all
the parts, muscles included, that without it,
the body, like an ungreased engine, wears it.
self out by its own friction. In consumption,
the waste of fat is one alarming and most dan
gerous symptom. and the far famed cod-liyer
oil acts perhaps chiefly by supplying the blood
with fat
am satisfied by experience that fat pork
| when the stomach VIII receive it-does just as
well. Moreover, few of those delicate per-
sons 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 go to the Arctic regions
and see the refined DIR. Kane aud his men de-
YOUR raw walrus biubber with gusto, as we
would take dish OF ice cream, and you viii
conclude that ssfat pork, particularly in our
Arctic winters, is not so bad au institution.
We could not live on fat pork alone-nor on
sugar and starch-though we could on bread
Bread, the staff Of life, contains the materials
both for breathing and making blood and red
flesh (muscle) in a Supereminent degree,
greater even than lean beef or any other sim
| gle article of food, and this: or some substI-
tute, such as beans, peas, potatoes, ETC., is al
ways eaten with fat pork, that there is a
| sufficient supply of blood and fiesh-making
material. However, excess is bad, and the fat
| pork must not constitute the bulk of a meal.
Chemical anal ysis is poor substitute for
| the observation of facts in the living body,
nor can We even base very much on expert
ments made on Mr.. Martin, the man with the
hole in his stomach. by which food can he in
troduced and digestion observed, for that is
not natures way of getting it there, and a
stomach with such an unnatural opening is
much like leaky dinner-pot with a hole in
the bottom stuffed with rag. Extended ex
perience alone can settle such question.
The Greeks and Romans esteemed pork as
luxury, and a most wholesome diet. Their
athleta and gladiators (prize-fi fighters) were fed
on pork. Our own Saxon (Teutonic Scandi-
navian) ancestors esteemed it so highly that
they, even in their heaven, provided great
hog with golden bristles, called Gulliborstli, of
whose bacon the heroes of Walhalla dined ey-
cry day, when at night the picked bones again
united and became covered with fresh sup
ply of fat pork. In this estimate of the hog,
the mass of mankind, not of the Scientific
race, (Jews, Turks, Arabs, &c, who follow
Moses law that had spiritual and representa-
tive meaning, have in all ages agreed, and will
agree, as long as man has canine teeth, and
lives by dratcing has breath. Whenever the
Scientific American or Prof. Liebig will dis
cover a new process of living without breath
ing, we may be guided by their opinion till
then, opine, ''good corn.fed pork, ," (and no
other Is good) Will rule the roast, of which
they will themselves not be slow to partake.
My remarks are of course only applicable TO
men, women and children @ith comparatively
healthy stomachs, who have sufficient e1er-
else, with pure air and pure water.