The adulteration of food.

Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The adulteration of food. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    flicted on even the most insignificant animals, we are as strongly opposed to the conclusion that animal food should be shunned. We also affirm that the presentmodeof slaughtering animals is cruel, and degrades the minds of the individuals engaged in it. That such subjects are worthy of attention from the government of the country, we think can scarcely admit of doubt, and they probably will en- gagethe supervision, in due time, of our Board of Health. That the ani- mal food sold in our markets is fre- quently of a diseased character, and liable to injure those who partake of it, is beyond question. Whether this is due to overfeeding, deficient nourishment, or to the use of im- proper food, are all subjects de- serving of careful consideration. It is a remarkable fact that the same dislike to blood which entered as an element into Jewish legislation, has been practically brought down to our times, and perpetuated hereditarily by that important functionary, the butcher. Why should our animals be first de- prived of sensation, and then drained of their most nourishing juices as at present practised in the prepa- ration of our animal food? No reason can be assigned, except that it has always been so, and that in the Mosaic code the practice was enjoined. Bruce, the celebrated Abyssinian traveller, imparted the first ray of light on the propriety of this remarkable injunction, by the discovery that among the tribes who had intercourse with the Jews from the earliest times, it was cus- tomary to incise live animals, for the purpose of abstracting a portion of their substance, and then to close up the wound without destroying the life of the animal. This sanguinary custom, while it be- speaks poverty in cattle, could not fail to impart blunted feelings to the operators, and when rendered ex- tensively customary must termi- nate in inevitable demoralization. That animal food is most nourishing when it contains as much as possi- ble of the circulating blood, that is, when it is most juicy, admits of no doubt to those who are ac- quainted with the chemistry of the human system. Nor is this obser- vation propounded as a mere theory, since we have had opportu- nities of partaking of animal food obtained by a much more humane method than that commonly prac- tised, and without the abstraction of a single drop of blood. This method is founded upon a simple prin- ciple, and is accompanied with less uneasiness perhaps than the opera- tion of drowning. The lungs may be compared to an elastic bag, which is enclosed in a box, formed by the bones of the chest. This elastic bag is capable of being filled by external air, and likewise of being emptied by the action of the muscles of respiration. If, however, we ad- mit air between this elastic bag and the environing box, the bag is no longer capable of being filled with atmospheric air, and the elastic character of the lungs is rendered unavailing — no more oxygen can reach the lungs, and death must speedily ensue. A perforation made on each side into the chest of the largest animal by means of a little instrument, termed in surgery a trocar, and used for the relief of dropsy in the chest, an*d air pressed in from a bag, through the aperture thus made, causes death in a few seconds, without pain, and without interfering with the natural distri- bution of the juices of the body. The meat thus killed retains its natural and nourishing fluids. And it is an interesting fact, that could not have been decided by abstract reasoning, that meat thus pre- pared retains its integrity even longer, according to the testimony of intelligent salesmen, than animal food deprived of its more fluid con- stituents, and obtained by the here- ditary process of destruction. It is scarcely necessary to add that the delicacy of game, and particularly of the hunted hare, which are forbidden by the Mosaic code, is undoubtedly promoted by the presence of the natural blood, that is, by the equal distribution of the juices through every part. The only argument we have heard against the use of such food was, that it was a breach of the Divine injunction—just as if the Hebrew ceremonial code had not been abrogated, and the use of shell-fish and other animals was not as strictly forbidden as blood. But it is strange how much more power-