128 STATES OF THE RIVER PLATE. 



organised and wanting in the due proportion of con- 

 stituents, parasitical diseases are generated. All diseases 

 are traceable to functional derangement; in feet func- 

 tional derangement constitutes disease, and all ' function ' 

 is dependent primarily on food and its assimilation. 



It cannot have escaped the notice of even the least 

 observant, that fevers, pestilential disorders, and epi- 

 demics are becoming more and more common amongst 

 us, and that the mortality from these causes is very great. 

 Tliere can be no question that the chief cause of this lies 

 in the unwholesome meat supply, and is further increased 

 by atmospheric impurities resulting from defective sanitary 

 arrangements and accumulations of foul matters. Indeed, 

 it is a rarity to find even a moderately good piece of 

 beef on any table in the cities of the Eio de la Plata ; 

 lean, wasted, and tasteless stufi", only rendered passable in 

 many instances by means of condiments, is the general 

 character of the beef supplied to the cities. 



It will not be uninteresting to take a glance at our 

 culinary processes. It will be found that prevailing culi- 

 nary practices have a direct reference to, and are an al- 

 most infallible index of, the qualities and properties of tJie 

 naeats cooked. The art of the cook is brought to bear 

 on, and answer to, the palate of the consumer of the food, 

 and this palate, taste, or craving is the expression of the 

 demand of nature for certain aliments or constituents of 

 food. The beef in these countries is almost universally, 

 if roasted (baked) in the oven or fried, cooked with a 

 large quantity of grease. The lean quality of the beef, 

 the absence of layering or veining of fat in the flesh, 

 renders this necessary, to supply the needful proportions 

 of heat-giving substance or carbon on the one hand, and 

 on the other to check the drawing away of the albu- 

 minous matters from the substance of the beef in the 



