A practical guide to meat inspection / by Thomas Walley.

  • Walley, Thomas, 1842-1894.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical guide to meat inspection / by Thomas Walley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    warrants the condemnation of flesh, as it is due only to the absorption and retention in the system of the colouring matter of the bile, which is in itself comparatively, if not absolutely, innocuous. A magenta hue is characteristic of general albuminous effusion as the result of the action of a zymotic poison or ferment in the blood, and indicates the existence, in the acute stage, of some zymotic or specific affection, as Zy. p. p., Ec. ep., rinderpest, or tuberculosis. It is most observable in making a fresh section and exposing it for a short time to the action of the atmosphere, and is accompanied by the glaze of albuminous effusion. A scarlet hue is but seldom seen, and is indicative of carbonic oxide, and sometimes of arsenical poisoning. Both the foregoing are usually accompanied by textural and other changes sufficiently marked to render the carcase at least unmarketable. A dark reddish brown or black results from imperfect aeration of the blood, and is seen in carbonic acid poisoning, in disease of the lungs, where the area involved is so large as to prevent the access of air, or where mechanical obstruction exists in the air-passages. It- is also seen in poisoning by narcotic agents, and particularly by those which, in addition to their action upon the brain, arrest the process of oxidation in the tissues—as alcohols, chloroform, aethers, and turpentine. Modi- fications of this colour are also seen in inflammatory affections, in high fevers, in apoplexy, in drowning, in suffocation, and in animals which have been imperfectly bled. The latter condition is easily distinguished by the marked infiltration of blood into the most dependent parts, by the back of the carcase being streaked with streams of blood which has escaped from the cut ends of veins, and by the veins and capillaries, especially of the internal organs, being surcharged with blood. Circumscribed darkness in colour may be due to hypostatic congestion, from the