Morning journal and courier., 1882-12-30
Bad Neat

Mir. John Gamgee expresses his belief that as much as one-fifth part of the common meat of the country-beef, veal, mutton, lamb and pork-cornes from animals which are considerably diseased. His investigations go to show that horned cattle affected with pleuro pneumonia are much oftener than not slaughtered on account of the disease, and when slaughtered are commonly eaten, even though the lung disease has made such progress notably to taint the carcass that animals affected with foot and mouth disease not often slaughtered on account of it, but if slaughtered, are uniformly eaten that the presence of parasites in the flesh of an animal never influences the owner against selling it for food that carcasses too obvi- ously ill-conditioned for exposure in the butchers shop are abundantly sent to the sausage maker, or sometimes pickled and dried that some sausage makers will utilize even the most diseased organs which can be furnished to them. Fortunately, the appear ance of good fresh meat Is known to most people. It should be firm and elastic when touched, scarcely moistening the finger ; it should have a marbled appearance from the ramihcations of little layers of fat among the muscles, and no odor beyond that which characterizes fresh meat. When allowed to stand for some time the surface becomes dry. Bad meat the other hand is wet and sodden and continues so; 1t has more- over Q sickly odor. When the flesh has a deep purple tint, 1t is probable that the ami nal has not been slaughtered, or else that it has suffered from some fever. We may lay | it down in theory at all events that 1t is only | the meat of healthy animals that have been | slaughtered which is fit for the food of man, and yet there can be no doubt that the meat l obtained from sickly and even diseased ami mals has sometimes been eaten with lmpuni- | ty. It is beyond question that the eating of meat of this description has often been fol- lowed by poisonous symptoms, but 1t is ! equally certain that these are by no means the invariable result. This apparent anoma. 1 ly has given rise to much controversy, and q solution of it is only to be arrived at by having regard to the exact nature of the dis ease and the stage to which it has pro- gresSed.
 It may be laid down as A general principle that meat, fish poultry i'll state of decay cannot be eaten with safety, since symptoms of irritant poisoning have so frequently arisen from this cause But little consid- eration will show the impossibility of drawing hard and fast line upon this point. We relish venison which has partially under gone decay, while we at once reject beef or mutton in similar condition Again, poul- try to be palatable must be fresh, yet we do not scruple to eat game far advanced in de. | composition. There is no doubt that in many cases we are guided by our palates in determining what food is wholesome for us {; for while many of eat mouldy cheese a l Chinaman will swallow bad eggs, and some races enjoy fish which we would consider putrid. Even as regards oysters which are | generally relished in proportion to their freshness, 1t is sometimes matter of taste. For example, it is recorded of the first mon- arch of the House of Hanover that he ob- jected to the English native oyster as being deficient in flavor. It was privately suggest | ed by shrewd courier that the native oys'
 ter should be allowed to become somewhat
 stale before being brought to the royal table.
 The king at once recognized the flavor which
 had always plea ed him so much at Herren
 hausen, and gave orders that in future he
 should always be supplied from that partiou
 lar bed. The absence of evil consequences
 after eating food which has undergone
 certain amount of decay is doubtless due ir
 many cases to the completeness of ths
 cooking process bat this does not militats
 against the general rule that food in any stag,
 of decay is unwholesome and should b,
 avoided.