Climate and Health in Hot Countries and the Outlines of Tropical Climatology / A Popular Treatise on Personal Hygiene in the Hotter Parts of the World, and on the Climates That Will Be Met Within Them.

by George Michael James Giles

Buffalo milk is nearly twice as rich as the milk of even the best humped cattle, and is therefore to be preferred for the purpose of making butter. There is a silly prejudice against the use of buffalo milk among Europeans in India, but it is really far superior to that supplied by the local breeds of cattle, even when well fed and carefully kept, and the only objection that can be fairly raised to butter made from it, is its absolute whiteness, which, however, is easily modified by the addition of a little harmless colouring matter. I have often been much amused at guests remarking on the excellence of the butter they were eating, who were convinced they could detect the least taste of “that nasty buffalo butter,” which in reality they were consuming with the greatest gusto all the while. In spite of her uncouth appearance, the buffalo cow is a nicer feeder than are the Indian humped cattle, and it is well known that the flavour of milk is greatly affected by the character of the animal’s food.

Tinned butter is generally quite wholesome, but is, strictly speaking, not butter at all, but ghi, as the material is necessarily melted in the process of tinning.

Cheese.

—I cannot recall any instance of cheese being incriminated as a carrier of disease. This product is really the result of the action of certain special microbes on milk; and it is probable that any micro-organisms of a dangerous character that may chance to be present in the milk employed in its manufacture, are crowded out and destroyed during the vegetative changes that determine the production of cheese. Tinned cheese, though often of inferior flavour, is usually quite wholesome, and is quite good enough for made dishes. Used as cheese is by the Italian housewife as a flavouring agent rather than a food, it may be used in the concoction of a great variety of dishes having macaroni, rice, or vegetables as their basis, and is invaluable used in this way to impart a variety to the rather scanty menu available during the hotter months, when eatable meat is often almost unobtainable; and from considerations of health, it is desirable to reduce the amount of this form of nourishment.

Meat.

—The meat obtainable in hot countries is usually greatly inferior to what we are accustomed to in England, although it may be doubted if it be any worse than the average supplies of most parts of Europe.

The animals are much smaller, a cleaned carcase of mutton weighing often no more than 30 lbs. in the East; and the same remark applies, in a smaller degree, to beef. Prime meat, such as alone satisfies the English market, can only be produced by careful stall feeding, which is an expensive process in any part of the world; and it is a mistake to suppose that such meat can be produced very much more cheaply in one part of the world than in another, as its cost depends on that of grain, which in these days of rapid communication, has a tendency to equalise itself throughout the world. The meat supply, available in the local markets, is usually simply grass-fed, and none too well nourished at that, so that it is usually stringy and of poor flavour, though very cheap as compared with European prices; and people are apt to grumble at the much higher price demanded for specially grain-fed meat; but the better article is well worth the extra cost from the health point of view, so that when local enterprise fails, it is very desirable that European residents should combine to supply themselves.

In India co-operations of this sort are usual in the smaller stations, and are known as “Mutton Clubs.” To get the animals into anything like good condition, they must be grain-fed for at least four or five months, so that the club must start with at least forty to fifty sheep for each four members, and this number must be kept up by fresh purchases as soon as killing is commenced; it being usual for each member to be apportioned a quarter twice a week. A shepherd has, of course, to be entertained, and the butcher paid for slaughtering and preparing the meat, so that the cost seldom falls far short of the best English meat; but mutton thus fattened can hardly be surpassed, and it must not be forgotten that wholesome food is no less essential to health than pure water, so that the plan might with advantage be adopted in other similarly situated communities.

Neither veal nor lamb are, as a rule, very satisfactory, as the condition of the parental animals is rarely good enough to enable them to get their progeny into plump condition, and pork should certainly be avoided, except in the highly salted and smoked form of imported ham and bacon. Even in temperate climates pork is very liable to those peculiar forms of decomposition, barely perceptible to the nose or eye, which give rise to ptomaine poisoning; and the risk of accidents of this sort is obviously much greater in hot latitudes.

Poultry, like meat, in the countries with which we have to deal, nearly always requires to be fed up at home before killing, and there is as a rule no difficulty in doing so, as space is usually ample, and the birds require but little attention. It should not be forgotten that scraps from the table are invaluable for fattening poultry of all sorts—odds and ends of meat being specially valuable.