i86 



The Review of Reviews. 



October I, 1906. 



CAN WE GET UNTAINTED MEAT? 



The disclosures in the Chicago meat trade have 

 naturally been turned to good account by vege- 

 tarians. Dr. Josiah Oldfield points the moral in the 

 Westminster Rcvtm'. He insists that, not in Chicago 

 alone, but in England, " diseased animals are 

 actually killed and sold and used in large numbers 

 for human food." Animals in domesticity are the 

 prey of nianv diseases of a loathsome character. In- 

 spection apparently will not save us. Dr. Oldfield 

 says; — 



To make even an approximate approach to the elimina- 

 tion of diseased meat it would be necessary to inspect 

 €Tery animal before bein^ slanghtered and put into 

 quarantine every one that was noriceably unhealthy, and 

 either to keep it under observation until quite well or to 

 kin it and destroy the carcase. It would then lie necessary 

 to inspect every animal as it is killed in order t-o prevent 

 the fraudulent removal of the internal organs. It wotild 

 then be necessary to examine these organs in detail and 

 to destroy iso far as htiman food is concerned) the bodies 

 of animals whose organs were found unhealthy. And 

 then, when you have done all this and have destroyed 

 thousands of dead bodies which would otherwise have been 

 ■eaten, you will have no assurance that the animal was 

 not suffering from an early form of one of the most loath- 

 some and malignant diseases the whole time. 



The writer illustrates his point by referring to the 

 great difficulty that confronts the best medical skill 

 in deciding whether a growth in the richest patient 

 is caneerous or not How much greater the diffi- 

 culty in regard to the possible diseases of cattle ! 



What with meat that cannot be certified as free 

 I'lom disease, with microbes haunting us in even- 

 speck of dust or breath of air, the modern man will 

 before long become as contemptuous of danger as 

 the seasoned veteran on the field of battle. The 

 terrors of bacteriological science may supply that 

 stimulus to valour which was formerly supplied in 

 the red field of carnage. Dr. Oldfield is good 

 enough to suggest an alternative diet such as is 

 practised in the Lady Margaret Fruitarian Hospital, 

 Bromley, Kent, where neither patients, nurses nor 

 medical staff partake of any form of flesh food 

 within the hospital. The result of nearly four years' 

 working is declared to be excellent: — 



A fruitarian diet consists of the fruits of trees (like 

 apples, oranges, bananas, and olives), the fruits of bushes 

 (like currants and raspberries), the fruits of plants (like 

 strawberries and melons, lentils and beans and cucumbers), 

 the fruits of gr.iS3es (like wheat and barley and maize and 

 oats), the fruits of nut trees (from filbert to cocoa-nut), to- 

 gether with some earth fruits (like potatoes) and a modi- 

 ■cum of vegetables and salads. To these may be added 

 butter, milk, honey, and cheese, although their production 

 is not so free from risk of contamination and animal 

 infection as is the case with the products of the vegetable 

 kingdom and the world of fruits. 



Blackwood for August is principally noteworthy for 

 its vehement wrath with Ritualism, Radical educa- 

 tion and reduction of armaments. Colonel Scott 

 MoncriefF offers a sensible plea for securing land for 

 military training. The case against remedial legis- 

 lation for the crofters is forcibly put. The most 

 charming article is that by Sir Herbert Maxwell, 

 describing his travels in the land of the Black 

 Mountain, under the title, " Folk, Fish and Flowers 

 in Montenegro.'" 



EARLY NOTES BY RENAN. 



Alys Hallard, in the Independent Review, describes 

 and quotes from Kenan's early notebooks which 

 he jotted down from dav to day and which are now 

 about to be published by his daughter. The writer 

 affirms that Renan is in reality not a sceptic, but a 

 Deist. These notes reflect the struggles of his 

 mind with the ancient religion he had abandoned 

 and the difficulties in which he found himself m 

 consequence. 



CONSOLATIONS OF OONSCIENCE. 



When he was about tn^nt}--three years of age he 

 writes in his notebook : — 



My friend Ernest, be governed by these principles. De- 

 spise those commonplace, positive men, who will go through 

 anything and accept any lowering humiliation for the 

 sake of money. Despise, too, those young hare-brained fel- 

 lows who fanc.v they have genius because they do not want 

 to do do anything, and who look on you with pity, poor 

 coach that you are. 



Oh ! God, "God ! what consolations you reserve for those 

 who suffer for you ! Yes, it is for you I am suSering. 

 Ah! if I had wished, I should now be living at the Carmes 

 College, made much of, first in all things and everything, 

 full of hope. Well, I am not there; I am here on the 

 lowest rung of the social ladder, worried by a veritable 

 tyrant, the plaything of his whims. No matter. It was 

 for the sake of my conscience. . . . 



JEWISH AND PETMITIVE EELIGION. 



His jottings on religion possess a pathetic in- 

 terest : — 



■ The human mind is of the most prodigious activity. 

 This is why it becomes delirious when confined within a 

 circle too iiarrow tor it. The Jews, for instance, by re- 

 stricting all science to one book, were driven to extrava- 

 gances ; for. not having much expanse, they were obliged 

 to be puerile in order to have any aliment, to devote them- 

 selves to mere letters and signs for the sake of being oc- 

 cupied." 



" Yes. the savage represents for us the primitive state 

 of hmnanity : its dreams, the sleep of its reason, its ideas | 

 of the marvellous." ! 



" We ought to make haste then to study this valuable 

 primitive state, which alone can resolve the problem of 

 the Origin of Man." 



WHEEE •• GREAT MEN BY NATTJEE " APPEAE. 



" It is amongst the primitive and uncultured nations that 

 the most great men b;/ nature are born. It is there that 

 most of these strong energetic natures are born; natures 

 that are not vulgar, that are enthusiastic and - original, 

 and that have those tmique flashes of illumination which 

 seem to emanate from mankind. Man is naturally fenced 

 in within a circle; but at times he has a clear glance 

 beyond, and that clear glance has its signification in 

 action, just as in speculation." 



" Everything being created by God. matter and the small 

 things like all the rest, the perfect thing would be to set 

 a value on all. to love and appreciate everything. The 

 contrary would be a kind of Manicheism; for why dis- 

 approve of matter if it be good? The Christian solution 

 by the Fall answers all this fairly well: but it is acriti- 

 cal. Some day the complete man will comprehend all 

 this." 



The Young Woman for August contains a good 

 paper by Miss B. L. Hutchins, on the position of 

 women in industrs, which she read at the Sweated 

 Industries' Exhibition. She says that many young 

 women throw themselves devotedly into charity' and 

 philanthropy, what is called practical work, and she 

 thinks it is rather a pit\- more of them do not give 

 themselves to study the causes of poverty, to try to 

 find out what is at the back of these troubles. The 

 paper on the Dunmow Flitch is elsewhere noticed. 



