The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1883-07-26
Diseased Meats.

ally increases the dangers of using
meats in an unsafe condition, as we
may know but little of the influences to
which they are subjected. This dan
ger is much enhanced in consequence
of the crude notions in relation to the
time which should relapse after the
slaughtering before meats are fit for
use. do not fear contradiction from
any respectable source when l affirm
that meats can not be eaten too soon
after the blood and waste juices have
been fairly drained off, with no regard
to the bugbear of "animal heat" This
l say on the supposition that it is the
desire of the consumer to secure meats
in the best state of purity, with no
special regard to pleasing vitiated
taste. Within few hours after death,
especially if the blood is retained to
any extent in the body, decomposition
commences with the more fluid parts,
particularly if the temperature favors
such a change. This decomposition is
FASTENED by the free access of moist air,
and a temperature ranging from about
fifty degrees 20 ninety-five Fahrenheit,
the process being slow at fifty, mod
crate at sixty, rapid at seventy, very
rapid at eighty, utterly stopping at thir-
ty to one hundred and ninety-five, the
more usual range of putrefaction being
from fifty to one hundred. Standing, as
some meats do in our markets, or in our
homes, after they have been on the ice
Fastening the decomposition by a
kind of chemical reaction-they must
become so affected as to be near the
stage of putrefaction, absolutely unfit
for the human stomach. Of course this
putrefactive tendency is arrested by the
heat of cooking, but recommended in a
short time, if not digested in the usual
period, furnishing fair case of ''blood
poisoning" To the vitiated taste such
meats are particularly agreeable, this
change evolving a relish very nearly
allied to sweetness. OF course they are
''tender," manifestly facilitating easy
and rapid swallowing. l need not say
why they are tender, as all may know
that such decomposition is but another
name for disintegration, sundering the
natural union, the fibers easily falling
apart, as seen in any carcass when near
the point of absolute rottenness.
know of no other cause of tenderness,
CnaU resulting from aye.
Of course these facts will not produce
any stomach-qualms on the part of the
epicure, who, like the swine, has no
higher idea of the great object of human
life than that of securing the greatest
amount of sensual qualification. The
average 'pressed meats may be re-
garded with some dstrust, purchased
in hot weather to save the trouble OF
cooking, since, if our market-men are
not better than the average business
men, are tempted, on the return of the
close of the week, when meat may not
keep till the sales of Monday, to arrest
the putrefactive tendency by cooking,
producing food really tainted before
this cooking, soon to become decidedly
''tender." Such semi-putrid meats
must produce very inferior blood, favor
inc fevers and inflammation, on account
of the disturbance resulting from the
active efforts of nature to eliminate such
noxious elements from the system by
| the most direct channels in the shortest
time.
Whatever may be said of the flesh of
the wild game and cattle, it is certain
that our domestic animals, particularly
the stalled, those deprived of air and
sunlight, are more or less diseased, like
human beings. This fact may 1e
known to the expert, the butcher, but
can not be detected by the ordinary
consumer, the danger being very much
enhanced in the cheated term" Oh
one fact we may be assured, that the
hog, fattened as he generally is, in con-
fined places, under stables and slaugh-
ter-houses, is the very quintessence OF
disease and filth. / can not refer, in
detail, to the necessary results, in this
regard, of the atrocious treatment, the
downright cruelties practiced on the
trains which bring so many cattle from
Texas to the Eastern market. II such
cattle are killed on their arrival pre-
fer to abstain utterly from meats than
eat such. / will add that there is q
class of animals, the scavengers, whose
mission it is to dispose of this putrid
garbage, such as the crow, hyena, hog,
vermin, the lower kinds of bugs, mag
gots, etc. They do not seem to suffer,
since it was the manifest design of the
Creator to save the higher orders from
contamination in this way, by its con-
sumption before the whole air should
bec6me polluted by its effiuvia. II
seems unjust and cruel, therefore, to
rob these scavengers of their dainty
morsels, by those who have the ability
to obtain pure and wholesome food
D- Honn0foy-d ia Golden Rule