“6th. It should not run to water, or become very wet on standing for a day or so, but should, on the contrary, dry upon the surface.
“7th. When dried at a temperature of 212° or thereabout, it should not lose more than from 70 to 74 per cent. of its weight, whereas bad meat will often lose as much as 80 per cent.
“Other properties of a more refined character will also serve for the recognition of bad
meat, as that the juice of the flesh is alkaline or neutral to test-paper, instead of being distinctly acid, and the muscular fibre, when examined under the microscope is found to be sodden and ill-defined.”
Unsound meat—diseased meat. Dr Letheby, in his ‘Lectures on Food,’ published in 1868, states that the seizure and condemnation, in London, of meat unfit for human food, during a period extending over seven years, amounted to 700 tons per annum, or to about 1-750th of the whole quantity consumed. These 700 tons he dissects into lbs. as follows:—“805,653 lbs. were diseased, 568,375 lbs. were putrid, and 193,782 lbs. were from animals that had not been slaughtered, but had died from accident or disease. It consisted of 6640 sheep and lambs, 1025 calves, 2896 pigs, 9104 quarters of beef, and 21,976 joints of meat.”
He admits, however, that this amount, owing to the difficulties and inefficiency of the mode of supervision, bears a very insignificant proportion to the actual quantity which escaped detection, and which was, therefore, partaken of as food. Professor Gamgee says that one fifth of the meat eaten in the metropolis is diseased. In 1863 the bodies of an enormous number of animals suffering from rinderpest, as well as from pleuro-pneumonia, were consumed in London; and we know that thousands of sheep die every year, in the country, of rot; the inference from which latter fact is that, since the carcases are neither eaten there nor buried on the spot, they are sent up to, and thrown upon, the London markets. The worst specimens find their way to the poorer neighbourhoods, where, as might be expected, their low price ensures a ready sale for them. These sales, it is said, mostly take place at night.
The above statements, which, if we exclude Professor Gamgee’s figures, do not solve the problem as to the quantity of unsound meat consumed in London, not unreasonably justify the assumption that it is very considerable; and this being admitted, we should be prepared to learn that it was a fertile source of disease of a more or less dangerous character.
There is, however, such extensive divergence in the various data bearing upon this point, that no satisfactory solution of it can be said to be afforded. Thus, Livingstone states that, when in South Africa, he found that neither Englishmen nor natives could partake of the flesh of animals affected with pleuro-pneumonia without its giving rise to malignant carbuncle, and sometimes, in the case of the natives, to death, and Dr Letheby attributes the increased number of carbuncles and phlegmons amongst our population to the importation from Holland of cattle suffering from the same disease. On the contrary, Dr Parkes says he was informed, on excellent authority, that the Caffres invariably consume the flesh of their cattle that die of the same epidemic, without the production of any ill effects. Again, there are numerous well-attested cases
in which the flesh of sheep which have died from braxy (a disease that makes great ravages amongst the flocks in Scotland) is constantly eaten without injurious results by the Scotch shepherd. The malady causes death in the sheep from the blood coagulating in the vital organs, and the sheep that so dies becomes the property of the shepherd, who, after removing the offal, is careful to cut out the dark congealed blood before cooking it.[28] Sometimes he salts down the carcase. In cases, however, where thorough cooking or an observance of the above precautions have been neglected, very dangerous and disastrous consequences have ensued. During the late siege of Paris large quantities of the flesh of horses with glanders appear to have been eaten with no evil consequences: and Mr Blyth, in his ‘Dictionary of Hygiène,’ quotes a similar case from Tardieu, who states that 300 army horses affected with glanders (morve) were led to St Germain, near Paris, and killed. For several days they served to feed the poor of the town without causing any injury to health.
[28] Letheby.