60 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



PKOPEB USE OF PORK AS FOOD. 



The Scientific American having endorsed the 

 opinion that "A fat hog is the very quintessence 

 of scrofula and carbonic acid gas, and that fat 

 pork was never designed for human food, making 



We could not live on fat pork alone — nor on 

 sugar and starch — though vs-e could on bread. 

 Bcead, the staff of life, contains the materials 

 both for breathing and making blood and red 

 flesh (muscle) in a supereminent degree, greater 

 even than lean beef or any other single article 



no red meat or muscle," etc.. Dr. Holston, ot^of food, and this, or some substitute, such as 

 Zanesville, who is one of the most intelligentjjjg^^j^g^g^s, potatoes, etc., is always eaten with 

 physicians of Ohio, wrote to the Cowrie?-: - ... _ . , , 



A fat hog is truly the quintessence of scrofula, 

 for scrofa in Greek is hog, and the derivative 

 scrofulous means hoggish. The disease scrofula 

 was so called when medical science was in its in- 

 fancy, from its supposed resemblance to some 

 diseases of the hog, and then the inference was 

 easy, that eating the hog (scrofa) produced the 

 hog-disease (scrofula.) It is well known, how- 

 ever, that our American Indians and the Hin- 

 doos, v/ho never use pork, are liable to this dis- 

 ease ; that in Europe it prevails chiefly among the 

 ill-fed poor, who hardly taste meat of any kind. 



On the otb"^" hand, the Chinaman and our own 

 pioneers, who hardly eat any other flesh, are re- 

 markably healthy and exempt from scrofula — a 

 disease we have much more reason to suspect as 

 originating long ago from the hereditary taint 

 of an unmentionable disease favored by irregular 

 living and poor diet. 



In the South, from their sleek appearance and 

 exemption from scrofula, you can at once distin- 

 guish the bacon-fed negro. 



These examples may suflice on that head. 



Fat pork is not in any sense carbonic acid, but 

 hydro-carbon, a combination of hydrogen and 

 carbon. It becomes carbonic acid and water by 

 combining with oxygen in the act of being burned' 

 or digested, which is much the same thing — giv- 

 ing olf during those processes large amounts of 

 heat and ght. 



It is true ihefat of pork does not make blood 

 or red flesh, though the lean, which is always 

 eaten alone, does. It is as your article says tru- 

 ly, material for breath. Well, that is a good 



fat pork, so that there is a sufficient supply of 

 blood and flesh-making material. However, ex- 

 cess is bad, and the fat pork must not constitute 

 the bulk of a meal. 



Chemical analysis is a poor substitute for the 

 observation of facts in the living body, nor can 

 we even base very much on experiments made 

 on Mr. Martin, the man with the hole in his 

 stomach, by which food can be introduced and 

 digestion observed, for that is not nature's way 

 of getting it there, and a stomach with such an 

 unnatural opening is much like a leaky dinner- 

 pot with a hole in the bottom stuff'ed with a rag. 

 Extended experience alone can settle such a 

 question. 



The Greeks and Romans esteem pork as a lux- 

 ury, and a most wholesome diet; their athletes 

 and gladiators (prize-fighters) were fed on pork. 

 Our own Saxon (Teutonic Scandinavian) ances- 

 tors esteem it so highly that they, even in their 

 heaven, provided a great hog with golden bris- 

 tles, called Gullibortstli, of whose bacon the he- 

 roes of Walhalla dined every day, when at night 

 the picked bones again united and became cov- 

 ered with a fresh supply of fat pork. In this 

 estimate of the hog, the mass of mankind, not 

 of the Shemite race, (Jews, Turks, Arabs, etc.,) 

 who follow Moses' law, that had spiritual and 

 representative meaning, have in all ages agreed, 

 and will agree, as long as man has canine teeth, 

 and lives by drawing his breath. Whenever the 

 Scientific American or Prof. Liebig will discover 

 a new process of living without breathing, we 

 may be guided by their opinion ; till then, I opine, 

 'good corn-fed (o.nd no other is good) pork" will 



deal. It is supposed that if the writer's breath 1.^1^ ^^^ ^.^-gj^ ^^ ^.j^j^l^ themselves will not be 



had stopped five minutes before he took his pen, | ^j^^^, ^^ partake. 



we should never have seen his article on fat pork. | ^j^ remarks are of course onlv applicable to 



But it does more. All the fat that goes mtojj^^g^^ women and children with" comparatively 

 the stomach and thence into the blood does notjj^g^^j^j^^, stomachs, who have suflicient exercise, 

 undergo slow burning, but is deposited m the I ^-ith pure air and water, 

 body as human fat. Now a certain amount of 

 fat is so necessary for the proper play of all the 

 parts, muscles included, that without it, the body, 

 like an ungreased engine, wears itself out by its 

 own friction. In consumption, the waste of fat 

 is one alarming and most dangerous symptom, 

 and the far-famed cod liver oil acts perhaps 

 chiefly by supplying the blood with fat. 



I am satisfied by experience that fat pork 



Pot the Ken) England FriryiteT. 



"USB OP PBESH MAKTUBES." 



Mr. Editor: — I noticed an article in your 

 paper of the 27th of November, under thj above 

 [caption, from Mr. Mansfield, of West Needham. 

 Is it possible in this enlightened age, and after a 

 when the stomach will' receive it — does just as man has spent "forty years among the corn crops," 

 well. Moreover, few of those delicate persons! that he should be so greatly mistaken or blind 

 that have so great an aversion to pork or other in regard to the manufacture and application of 

 fat, ever live to see forty years. They die young: manures, or that he should have the "courage" 

 of consumption. Butter, sugar, starch, vegeta-j to write such an experience for an agricultural 

 ble oils, act to some extent as animal fat, and in paper ? (And I think you, Mr. Editor, must 

 tropical climates are used as substitutes. |have a large share of moral courage to publish 



But go to the Arctic regions and see the refined ^ it.) 



Dr. Kane and his men devour raw walrus blub- 

 ber with a gusto, as we would take a dish of ice- 

 cream, and you will conclude that "fat pork," 

 ]>srticularly in our Arctic winters, is not so bad 

 au institution. 



How many converts does he expect to make 

 to his theory, "that manure composted under 

 cover is a dangerous article as food for plants ;" 

 or how many careful farmers will be likely to fol- 

 low his advise, and "give their manure the ben- 



