The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1881-08-25
Meat. Eating and the Fire. Escape.

Our spleen against horseflesh has been
handed down from generation to gener-
alton with such undated intensity that
none of us could stomach it, except
under the direst necessities. Never
theless the flesh of horses and mules
has been proved by the French to be as
wholesome as that of other animals.
The effect of "much pork-eating,
about which friend inquiries is the
same as that of eating much animal
food of any kind. The indications
which usually follow are those of excess
sive alimentation Inflammation, bill
iousness, scrofula, colds. catarrhs,
rheumatism, dyspepsia, etc., etc., the
weakest excretory organ giving way
first to over-action. The motion that
hogs are naturally scrofulous'' may or
may not have foundation in fact. The
ease and frequency with which their
livers become affected shows that their
greatest liabilities to disease are of a
bilious character. Wens, tumors, lame
ness, sweiled joints and other swellings
indicative of scrOfula in the human SUBJ
ject, are more frequent in cattle than
in hogs. The fact that the English
word scrofula is derivative from scro-
ia, an old Latin word signifying a sow,
is not sufficient authority for the infer
ence that scrOfula is so called because
the disease was common among swine.
1t may have proceeded from some other
fancy analogy. Webster intimates that
it might have come from supposed re-
sembIance between the form Of glandu.
lar swellings n the neck and the shape
Of pig. The ancients were "great''
on relations aud analoeies, and they
sometimes took some singular freaks,
such as the fancied connection between
the forms OF consultations in the zodiac
and certain parts of the animal body,
which is believed in by many to this
day, and annually finds place in our
almanacs.
Under the unnatural conditions in
which domestic animals are raised. dis
ease has become SO common that there
is no safety in using their flesh un-
cooked. frichine are liable to be car
ried in pork, the foot and mouth dis
ease and anthrax in beef, tapeworm in
fowls, and even milk becomes We
hicle for conveying infectious diseases,
such as typhoid fever, kinepox, small
pox, scarlatina, etc. The liabilities are
about the same in one class OF animals
as in another. They are certainly not
greater in pork than in other flesh.
Indeed. beef might be more reasona-
bly, suspected than pork, since the in
PRODUCTION of pleuro pneumonia, foot
and mouth disease, malignant anthrax.
Texas fever, etc., and especially when
the deleterious effect upon beef from
fright and cruel treatment OF live stock
in transportation by rail are taken into
consideration. The hog. it is true,
often lives under conditions which
would prove destructive to other ami
mails, but, then. his unsusceptible ma
ture and the powerful digestive ability
of his omniverous stomach, enable
him to ward off and digest and destroy
foul and infectious matter which might
easily take effect in others and become
source of danger to those using their
flesh. Fortunately, thorough cooking
kills all infectious matter and renders
1t harmless. 1t is the only safeguard
on which VIC can ontidently rely.
When this is properly done there is no
reason for rejecting the flesh of swine
from our tables that would not lie
against all the rest of our domestic
animals.-rQ, H. B, arnold, IN n
7, Tribune.