Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1883 — Bad Meat. [ARTICLE]

Bad Meat.

Mr. John Gambee expresses his belief that as much as one-fifth part of the common meat of the country—beef, veal, mutton, lamb and pork—comes from animals which are considerably diseased. His investigations go to show that horned cattle affected with pleuro-pneu-monia 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 as notably to taint the carcass; that animals affected with foot-and-mouth disease are 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 obviously ill-conditioned for exposure in the butcher’s 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 appearance 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 ramifications 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, on the other hand, is an< l sodden, and continues so; it has, moreover, a sickly odor. When the flesh has a deep purple tint, it is probable that the animal has not been slaughtered, or else that it has suffered from some fever. We may lay it down in theory, at all events, that it 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 obtained from sickly and even diseased animals has sometimes been eaten with impunity. It is beyond question that the eating of meat of this description has often been followed by poisonous symptoms, but it is equally certain that these are by no means the invariable result. This apparent anomaly has given rise to much controversy, and a solution of it is only to be arrived at by having regard to the exact nature of the disease and the stage to which it has progressed.— Good Words.