885 OF FOOD, AND THE DIGESTIVE PROCESS. 



among the epicures in our own country, who consider the haut gotit essential to 

 the perfection of their venison or woodcock). One of the most remarkable ex- 

 amples of this kind among a civilized people is furnished by the inhabitants of 

 the Faroe islands; who, according to the Report of Dr. Panum, who has in- 

 vestigated their Sanitary condition, live during a large part of the year upon 

 meat in a state of incipient decomposition, and introduce rast, or half-decayed 

 maggoty flesh, fowl, or fish, as a special relish at the end of a meal. 1 The re- 

 sult of such a diet is (as might be anticipated) a continual disorder of the diges- 

 tive organs, manifesting itself especially by diarrhoea. This is a symptom of 

 annual occurrence on the bird-islands, and is also invariably observed after a 

 large "take" of whales, when much of the flesh of these animals necessarily 

 becomes "rast" before it is consumed. And this diarrhoea also complicates the 

 course of other diseases, and even becomes, from its obstinacy and exhausting 

 character, their most serious occurrence. Moreover, the Faroese are peculiarly 

 liable to suffer severely from epidemics, when these are introduced among them; 

 as was especially shown in the epidemic of Measles investigated by Dr. Panum, 

 which attacked in the course of six months scarcely less than 6000 out of a 

 population of 7782, no age being spared, and very few escaping, save such as 

 had suffered from the malady in the epidemic which had occurred 65 years pre- 

 viously, and such as maintained a very rigorous isolation. Hence, notwithstand- 

 ing that the usual rate of mortality is very low (only 1 in 64f annually), it is 

 obvious that there is a certain constitutional condition among them, which pecu- 

 liarly favors the reception and propagation of Zymotic poisons; and it is quite 

 conformable to the principles formerly laid down ( 210), to attribute this to 

 the habitual introduction of putrescent matter with the food. It is probable, 

 indeed, that if it were not for the active lives of the Faroese, and their habitual 

 exposure to a low external temperature, the direct effects of their diet would be 

 far more prejudicial than they are; but a large part of these are probably neu- 

 tralized by that activity of respiration which the habits of. life of this hardy 

 people induce, much of the noxious matter being decomposed and eliminated by 

 the combustive process ( 208). Hence it may well be conceived, that the effects 

 of putrescent food would be much more decidedly manifested amongst individuals 

 habitually living in close ill- ventilated apartments; and although the same 

 means of comparison do not exist, since there is ho part of our town-population 

 habitually subsisting on such a diet as that of the Faroese, yet there is no want 

 of evidence with regard to the injurious effects of even the occasional employ- 

 ment of putrescent food, especially when any zymotic disease is epidemic. 3 



1 See Dr. Panum's "Observations on an Epidemic of Measles in the Faroe Islands," in 

 the "Bibliothek for Laegr.," 1846; of which an analysis is given in the "Brit, and For. 

 Med.-Chir. Rev.," vol. vii. p. 419. Dr. Panum says, "During the interval of many months 

 that the flesh, fish, or fowl, is neither fresh, nor yet wind-dried, it is called 'rast,' a word 

 which I can only translate by half-rotten. This appellation it fully deserves from the hor- 

 rible smell that it sends forth, from its mouldy aspect, and the numerous maggots that 

 swarm upon it. I have seen a boat's crew of eight men eating with great relish the 

 raw flesh of the ca'aing whale, even though it was so decomposed that the smell of it was 

 disagreeable to me even in an open boat, and the bottom of the boat was almost white with 

 the maggots that fell from the decaying mass." 



2 Facts of this kind were abundantly furnished during the last visitation of Cholera. 

 See the "Report of the General Board of Health on the Epidemic Cholera of 1848 and 

 1849," pp. 63, 64. An instance of a very remarkable kind occurred at Bridgewater, towards 

 the close of the epidemic, as related to the' Author by Dr. Brittan. A cargo of spoiled 

 oysters having been brought to the town, and the sale of them having been prohibited on 

 account of their putrescent condition, they were given away to any who would receive 

 them; and several children in a neighboring school partook of them plentifully. In the 

 course of the following night, all who had eaten of the oysters (so fur as Dr. Brittau could 

 ascertain) were attacked with cholera and choleraic diarrhoea, and eleven of the children 

 died the next day. 



