36 ANIMAL FOOD EESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



nineteen years the flesh of 18,000 diseased animals has 

 been used as food in Lille, and that during that time- 

 there were no appreciable alterations in the death-rate, 

 nor any unusual accessions of disease. 



Dr. Fleming, in his work on " Veterinary Sanitary- 

 Science," says, in speaking of pleuro-pneumonia : — "Since 

 the malady has been recognised it may safely be asserted 

 that the flesh of millions of diseased animals has been 

 consumed as food in every part of the world, and yet 

 there is not to my knowledge a single instance of any 

 accident attending or following its use." 



From these considerations it is warrantable to con- 

 clude that the consumption of the flesh of cattle slaugh- 

 tered in the early stages of pleuro-pneumonia is perfectly 

 harmless, and the destruction of such meat is a wasteful 

 expenditure of a material which is capable of supplying 

 a perfectly wholesome animal food. We have proved 

 that meat of the kind referred to has been largely used 

 in this and other countries, and the fact that not in any 

 one case has disease been traced to the consumption of 

 the flesh of a pleuro-pneumonia animal is a point of the 

 most significant and conclusive value as evidence, more 

 especially as we have precise and positive information 

 relating to the deleterious effects attending the consump- 

 tion of the flesh of animals affected with anthrax, milz- 

 brand, etc., and also the decomposed flesh of healthy 

 cattle. The above remarks apply to the fresh and un- 

 changed meat of animals which have been slaughtered 

 in the earlier period of the second stage of the disease, 

 but we are not prepared to advocate the use of the flesh 

 of animals markedl}-- reduced in condition. It is certain 

 that the use of the seriously tainted or putrescent meat 

 of healthy and diseased animals alike is attended with 

 danger, and there can be little doubt that effects attri- 

 buted to the virus of one or other of the diseases to 

 which cattle are liable have frequently been due to a 

 state of incipient decomposition of the food consumed. 



It is true that there are some who prefer tainted to 

 fresh and wholesome meat, and who' seem to be pro- 



