UTILISATION OF EIVER PLATE BEEF. 117 



substance effected by physical or mental effort, are the 

 result of a positive decay or decomposition of the various 

 parts ; and this continuous waste of substance, and its 

 replacement through the instrumentality of food, is an 

 absolute condition of animal life. Therefore long travel- 

 ling, anxiety, loss of rest, will materially reduce the 

 substance of the body, and without a continual and 

 sufficient replacement of that substance in the form of 

 nutritious food (with time for its assimilation into the 

 organism), the decomposition or waste of substance 

 would be such that, in a short time, there would remain 

 little else but the ' fibre ' of flesh ; all the l nitrogenous,' 

 all the hydro-carbon substances, would be consumed 

 in the efforts made by the animal, dissipated as gases, 

 or passed off as secretions. Moreover, this general 

 decomposition (or combustion) having set in, it would be 

 in vain to hope to arrest it by any process. Hence the 

 reason why so much of the beef which has been shipped 

 from time to time has been found bad, or become bad 

 immediately that the oxygen of the atmosphere has had 

 access to it. Close packing, hermetical sealing, &c. 

 suspends this decomposition, but does not stop it. 



Anyone knowing these facts, and the condition of our 

 cattle in general, how they are brought to the slaughter, 

 how they are killed, the semi-wild habits of the animals, 

 and their excitement on the approach of man, can well 

 understand that their beef cannot be nutritious, and cannot 

 be salted without parting with by far the greater portion 

 of such nutriment as it contains, and becoming almost 

 valueless as food, if not altogether unwholesome. It is 

 well known that the fibre of meat that which is left 

 after the juices are withdrawn has no sustenance in it. 

 So loosely is the nutritious matter the juice of meat- 

 held in the substance of our beef, that no hash, stew, or 



