Deadly Adulteration and Slow Poisoning Unmasked / Disease and Death in the Pot and Bottle

by Anonymous

Among other deceits in use among the “knights of the cleaver” is, the doctoring of joints of animals which have died of disease, by the skilful introduction of slips of fat into different parts of the joint, so as to give it the appearance of meat which had been killed in a healthy state. A recent occurrence at Guildhall has proved this practice in all its enormity, and shown that it is carried on to no trifling extent. From the same transaction it came out in evidence that the art is sufficiently extensive to employ a certain part of the “butchering craft” in its distinct mysteries. Probably by “professors of the knife and cleaver” it is considered as the ne plus ultra of butcher-skill, and has its appropriate honours and rewards. But this is known only to the initiated in the “profession.”

While discoursing of this feat of butcher-ingenuity, it seems not misplaced to observe that the sausages in London are often made out of the carcases of animals that have died. This fact, also, was brought to Mr. Bull’s knowledge, in the course of the evidence in the before-mentioned case. And I can assure my readers, that even when they are not favoured with sausages made of this savoury food, they do not often get meat in sausages better than carrion; and that more than one half of all sausage-meat consists of bone, gristle, and bread, reduced to almost an impalpable powder by means of the machine, and then worked up with a due modicum of water. Nor is this the least part of the evil. From accidental causes and the frauds of the vender, they are often poisonous. Dr. Paris has well observed, in his useful work on diet, that the viscera and intestines of animals, and also their livers, are often poisonous, while the meat of the animal is perfectly wholesome. This proves, as that gentleman well observes, that sausages are not deserving of that general use in which they are held in London: for the integument which encloses the sausage is often highly injurious to health, while the meat possesses no deleterious quality whatever. The poisonous nature of sausages arising from fraud is partly occasioned by the carelessness of the manufacturer in regard of the vessels in which he keeps his meat, but more generally from the quality of the meat which he uses. Some years ago a German chemist discovered, on analysing German sausages, that they contained a portion of prussic acid (the most potent poison known); from the eating of which several persons died. Could the exact cause have been ascertained, it would probably have been found that they were made from the meat of dead animals.

The goodness of meat depends much on the season of the year. Thus the flesh of most full grown quadrupeds is in the highest season during the first months of winter. Beef and mutton are in the greatest perfection in the months of November, December, and January. Pork is only good in winter; during the summer months it is not wholesome. Venison is in the highest season from the middle of June to the beginning of September. Lamb and veal during the summer months.

The distinguishing sign of young and old meat is, that in the latter the fat is chiefly collected in masses, or layers external to the muscles; while in the former it is more interspersed among the muscular fibres, giving the flesh a marbled appearance.

The quality of animal food is also considerably influenced by the sex; that of the female (which sooner attains perfection) being always more delicate and finer grained than that of the male, whose fibres and flavour are stronger and more rank. But this rule prevails only during the early age of the female; for, as it grows older, it gets tougher, instead of mellowing by age as the male does.

Over fat meat should not be chosen; as sheep in the first stage of the rot, or about four weeks after becoming tainted, feed inordinately, and are much disposed to fatten; which propensity graziers and butchers omit no opportunity to promote, in order to increase their profits. Excessive fatness is, therefore, no bad sign for judging of the unwholesomeness, or rather rottenness of mutton, as it is generally produced artificially.

Meat that has been over driven, and killed, as the butchers term it, on the drift, should be always rejected as unwholesome; besides, it weighs heavier than if the animal had been killed while its blood was in a healthy state; for, by the over-driving the blood has been so diffused in the cellular membrane, that it cannot be drawn off by bleeding; and the meat is heavier to the benefit of the butcher, but to the loss of the consumer. The florid colour of meat is a sign of the blood not having been properly drawn away.

The whiteness of the flesh of lamb and veal is often produced by feeding the animal with milk in which chalk is mingled, or by tying it up in a stall with a piece of chalk covered with salt constantly before it to lick. Sometimes calves are suspended by their hind legs with the head downwards for hours together, and then bled to death slowly, for the purpose of whitening the flesh. And, among the other complicated and lengthened acts of cruelty, to which avarice resorts to extract the largest possible price from the sufferings of a poor harmless creature, is the tying of calves together by the hind legs, and suffering them to remain suspended across the back of a horse, with their heads downwards, for hours together, in their way from market; a practice adopted by butchers for the purpose of rendering the meat of the body as white as possible.

Nor are fishmongers less crafty and dishonest than the other dealers in the necessaries of life. Sea-fish, particularly cod, haddock, and whiting, are subject to the operation of inflating the cellular membrane, in order to make them look plump, and increase the bulk of the fish. The imposition is detected by pressing each side of the orifice at the belly of the fish between the thumb and finger, when the air will be perceived to escape.

The signs that fish are fresh are the firmness or stiffness of the fish, the redness of its gills, and the brightness of the eyes. Whiteness of muscle and the absence of oiliness and viscidity are also signs of wholesomeness of this species of food. Flakiness and opaque appearance, with a layer of white curdy matter interspersed between the flakes, after the fish has been cooked, are signs of the goodness of turbot, cod, whiting, haddock, flounder, and sole.