ANIMAL FOOD 



digestion. Because of their ease of digestion, fresh raw 

 oysters are a valuable food in sickness. Crabs and 

 lobsters also are good food if well cooked. 



176. Blood. Blood is digested with difficulty. It contains little 

 albumin and fat and no sugar. It adds nothing to the value of meat, 

 and is very liable to decay. It should always be removed, as is usually 

 done in killing the animal. By the law of Moses the Jews were forbid- 

 den to eat the meat of animals which had not been bled to death. 



177. Inferior meat. Meat cannot be adulterated, but inferior 

 meat is sometimes sold as good meat. Old meat is sold for fresh meat,, 

 and tough meat for tender. Very young animals are dangerous as food,, 

 and yet they are often sold. Meat from sick animals is always unfit for 

 use. In France, horseflesh is sold for food under its own name, and in 

 this country it is sometimes substituted for beef in cheap shops. 



178. Diseased meat. Meat sometimes contains living germs r 

 which may produce disease in those who eat it. The most common 

 disease to be feared is tuberculosis, or consumption. Beef cattle are 

 especially liable to have the disease, which may be located in their 

 muscles as well as in any other part of their bodies, and is difficult of 

 detection. 



A tapeworm passes one stage of its existence in the muscles of an 

 animal. Its eggs are accidentally eaten by an animal, and develop into 

 minute worms, which pass through the walls of the stomach into the 

 muscles and there form white cavities about the size of a pin head, 

 in which they lie quietly. When flesh containing such a worm is 

 eaten and digested by man, the worm is set free from its cavity, and, 

 fastening itself to the inside of the intestine, grows to many feet in 

 length. It lays eggs which will grow only when eaten by a lower 

 animal. 



In pork there are sometimes found microscopic worms called trichina. 

 In the muscles of man they may grow and multiply enormously. The 

 disease which they cause is both painful and deadly. It is extremely 

 rare, at least in this country. 



179. Prevention of disease. A sure preventive against any 

 of these diseases is thorough cooking, for heat destroys all living germs. 

 It has not been proved that salting and smoking meat kills the germs 

 in it. There is no way of making musty or spoiled meat fit for food. 

 Such meat never should be used. 



