A Wise Provision

The more freely the flesh is drained of the blood, the freer is the meat from these excrementitious products, so we can see the wisdom of the Lord's instruction to the children of Israel, when He said: "Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it out upon the earth as water." - Deut. 12:16

We quote from Harrington and Richardson's Practical Hygiene, page 91: "The Jewish method of slaughtering is regarded by many as far superior to any other. According to Dembo, it is the most rational from a hygienic standpoint, since the animal is bled rapidly and completely".

Ptomain Poisoning

So meat, if eaten at all, should be thoroughly cleansed of all its juices which, in the minds of many, would detract greatly from its desirability.

3. Poisons resulting from putrefactive processes: The ever present germ begins its work upon the flesh of the animal as soon as life is extinct, and decomposition begins immediately. The products of putrefaction are not all poisonous, but very often deadly poisons are formed and poisoning produced by decayed meat and fish is not an uncommon occurrence. This form of poisoning is known as ptomain poisoning, ptomains being organic bases resulting from the activity of bacteria on nitrogenous matter. These ptomains may be formed after the meat has been eaten, through changes occurring in the intestines as the result of the excess of protein and the stagnation in the bowel. However, decomposition has, in most cases, progressed to a great extent before the meat is digested. Often meat is not considered ready to eat until it has reached a certain stage of putrefaction and perhaps is ready to fall to pieces.

Ripe Meat

Food Inspector Dodge, of the District of Columbia, testified that families of social prominence in Washington preferred "ripe" meat because it was more tender.

"Many savage people prefer putrid fish and meat, and the more rotten it is the greater their enjoyment in its consumption. In less degree the same is true of many of the most enlightened people who prefer game when decomposition is fairly well advanced." - Harrington and Richardson s Practical Hygiene, page 66.

4. The diseases of animals: Some of the diseases which may affect animals are anthrax, black leg, pyemia, septicemia, rabies, tetanus, malignant epizootic, catarrh, hog cholera, actinomycosis, lymphadenitis, tuberculosis, pleurisy, pneumonia, Texas fever, parasitic icterohematurea, mange, scab, tape-worm, trichina, peritonitis, pericarditis, meningitis, enteritis, gastritis, metritis, mammitis, polyarthritis, phlebitis, foot and mouth disease, abscess, tumors, nephritis. Even fowl are often contaminated with disease.

It has been estimated that with tuberculosis alone the following percentage of cows are affected: Great Britain, 30%; Belgium, 49%; Denmark, 33%; Mexico, 33%; United States, 14%.

Post mortem condemnations for one year in U. S. were:

A Tainted Food

Note the fact that so large a number of carcasses are rejected only in part, the remaining portion being used as fit for food. Of some five hundred livers in one lot only forty were, according to the testimony of one inspector, considered good enough for export. The rest were reserved for home consumption. Meat inspection is often very superficial, and many diseased conditions may escape the notice of even the ordinarily careful inspector.

Many Frankforters and Bolognas are said to consist largely of horse-meat, immature veal, and decrepit and sick cows, tuberculous and otherwise. Prepared sausage casings contain about five grams (about a teaspoonful) of excrement per metre.

Thirty per cent of oysters five miles from sewer outlets contain the colon bacillus, a germ whose habitat is the human intestinal tract.

Slaughter Houses

"Not long ago the Metropolitan Sewage Commission of New York and the Merchants' Association made an exhaustive investigation of waters and oyster beds surrounding New York and reported the harbor to be one vast cesspool foul with disease germs and undissolved sewage matter. Two million oysters are taken annually from these waters." - National Food Magazine.

"The pernicious practice of fattening oysters on sewage has been the cause of untold deaths from typhoid fever in the past." - Roberts.

It is a very common occurrence to find fish fresh from the market or fish wagon with worms crawling in great numbers out of their flesh.

5. AEsthetic reasons: On the question of suffering of animals we need not dwell. No comment is needed. On the filth of slaughter houses one quotation will suffice.

"At nearly all slaughter houses inspected, foul, nauseating odors filled the air for yards around. Swarms of flies filled the air and the buildings and covered the carcasses which were hung up to cool. Beneath the houses was to be found a thin mud, or a mixture of blood and earth, churned by hogs which are kept to feed upon the offal. Maggots frequently existed in numbers so great as to cause a visible movement in the mud. Water for washing the meat was frequently drawn from dug wells which received seepage of the slaughter house yards or the water was taken from the adjoining streams to which the hogs had access. Dilapidated buildings were the usual thing, and always the most repulsive surroundings and odors existed." - Slaughter House Inspector of Indiana. Gov. Bulletin.

Regarding influence on character and disposition we will quote the following:

Character Gentle Or Violent

"More or less exclusive carnivorous alimentation is, to a greater extent even than race, one of the factors of the gentle or violent character of an individual. It is known that the white rats of our laboratories, as long as they are fed on bread and grain, are very manageable and easy to tame, whilst they become snappy and given to biting from the time they are fed on flesh. The same observations have been made in the case of a horse and even of a dog, although the latter is omnivorous. Liebig relates that a bear kept at the museum at Giessen was gentle and quiet when it was fed exclusively on bread and vegetables, but a few days of animal diet caused it to become fierce and dangerous to its keeper. They used to amuse themselves by periodically altering the animal's character. It is known, adds Liebig, 'that the irascibility of pigs may be increased by a meat diet to such an extent as to cause them to attack men.'" - Gautiers "Diet and Dietetics" page 376.