40 Marts Food and Dietetics. 



generally recognised a particular season when certain kinds of 

 flesh food ought not to be eaten. Beef and mutton, although 

 never really out of season, are in the highest state of perfection 

 in the autumn and early winter, after the animals have enjoyed 

 abundant pasturage. Pork should never be eaten in the 

 summer, and venison only in the autumn and winter. The 

 practice of draining the blood from animals, in slaughtering 

 them for food, involves a waste of nutritive material, and would 

 be condemned but for certain real or fancied advantages — the 

 meat is improved in flavour, keeps longer, and looks better. 

 On this point it is interesting to notice the strictness of the 

 Mosaic law as to the absolute necessity of the removal of the 

 blood. Jews, as a matter of religion, will not eat the flesh of 

 any animal not slaughtered by one of their own race. They 

 consider their meat far superior to ours, and it is eaten by 

 preference by some Christians. Mutton, though slightly less 

 nutritious, is generally considered to be more easily digestive 

 than beef. There are, however, peculiar idiosyncracies with 

 regard to food. There is a record of a person to whom mutton 

 acted as a stomachic poison, causing nausea, vomiting, and 

 internal pains ; and this was not a matter of caprice, for the 

 meat was frequently disguised and given to him with the same 

 result. Pork is the most difficult of digestion of any animal 

 food, as venison is one of the most digestible. 



Roughly speaking, 20 per cent, of the whole weight of the 

 carcase of an animal, as dressed for food, is bone. Bones con- 

 tain a considerable amount both of nitrogenous and fatty 

 matter, and to extract it they should be broken up into small 

 fragments and boiled in a digester or high pressure boiler. 

 Seme authorities state that three pounds of bones contain as 

 much carbon as one pound of meat, and that seven pounds of 

 bones contain in nitrogen the equivalent of one pound of meat. 



One of the most important points to be noticed is that meat 

 should be eaten only when perfectly wholesome. A few simple 

 rules on this head may be useful. Meat is unwholesome if it is 

 of either a pale pink or a deep purple colour. The former is a sign 



