BY JAMES TOLSON, ESQ. 83 
which it is necessary to remove before putting the carcass 
into the freezing room. 
A gas, to be noxious, in the sense in which it appears to 
be used by the supporters of this theory, must be the result 
of the decomposition of animal matter. As the function of 
the blood is to remove all decomposing and effete matter 
from the system, if noxious gases exist in the body of the 
animal we wish to kill, we may be quite sure that it is in 
such a state of disease, with active decomposition going on 
in the tissues, as to render its flesh totally unfit for human 
food. If the flesh, muscles, &c., contain noxious gases— 
and we cannot suppose the interior tissues of the body to 
be free, and the vapours or gases to be retained in the large 
cavities only—it is a certainty that no amount of hanging 
in the open air, or anywhere else, will remove them. 
So long as life remains in an animal, and the blood circu- 
lates, the products of decomposition are removed as fast as 
made, and it is only in a time of sickness that these pro- 
ducts are produced at a greater rate than they can be taken 
away. If the animal is in good health, the time when the 
body is most free from decomposing matter will be at the 
moment of its death. From that moment the products of 
decomposition cease to be removed, and if the temperature 
be kept up, it is only a question of a longer or shorter time, 
according to circumstances, before they become perceptible 
to the senses. 
We may therefore dismiss the idea that any noxious gases 
exist in the tissues of an animal fit for human food. That 
there is a certain characteristic odour emitted from the 
viscera when the animal is opened, we all know, but this 
is not a noxious gas, and disappears with the removal of the 
offal. 
Freezing tn the Animal Heat—TYo those who hold 
the ‘‘Dynamical Theory” of heat to be the correct one, 
the idea of freezing in heat seems to be an absolute contra- 
diction, and contrary to all reason. It would appear to be 
much the same as filling, say, a box, the sides of which were 
composed of wire gauze, with air, and putting it into a 
vacuum, expecting the gauze to retain the air contained in 
the interior of the box. A clear conception of the nature 
of heat shows at once that such a thing as freezing in heat 
