38 ANIMAL FOOD EESOUECES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



it ; it was horribly tough. Perhaps we don't know how 

 to cook it properly, suppose we try it to-morrow for 

 breakfast ; stewed it was, and certainly it tasted a little 

 more savoury, but still tough. The proper mode of 

 cooking it had evidently not yet been hit upon ; a piece 

 was ordered to be boiled for dinner, and Vellum started 

 for the day's business in Chancery Lane. There was 

 the usual pile of letters to open, but one in Stockwhip's 

 handwriting had the preference, and here it is — ' Dear 



, The scourge has reached us at last. Two of my 



finest bullocks were found dead in the paddock yester- 

 day morning, and on being opened the indications of 

 pleuro-pneumonia were unmistakeable. The left lung- 



of one of them Dr. here says is the most perfect. 



specimen of diseased structure he ever saw. I want Dr.. 

 Macadam and Mr. Miscamble to see it, and therefore I 

 send it to you packed in salt.' Vel- 

 lum's eyes began to swim. He did not dine at home 

 that day." 



The following remarks from the Lancet on the quality 

 of meat deserve consideration : — 



" Those who perpetuate the old English custom of 

 living on food which is so far honestly cooked for the 

 table that the eater may know what he is eating — who 

 do not in fact use made dishes which may be made of 

 anything — must have noticed of late a considerable 

 depreciation in the quality of meat. It is either soft 

 and flabby, or stringy, tough, and poor in flavour. This- 

 is a serious matter, and may be taken as a foretaste of 

 what is to come, unless something can be done to stay 

 the plague of reckless importation. It may be safe,, 

 though we doubt the conclusion — to eat the flesh of un- 

 healthy animals, some suffering from the loathsome 

 febrile and wasting diseases, and killed to prevent their- 

 dying naturally ; but it is not nice or prudent to do so ;. 

 better diminish the proportion of animal food in our 

 ordinary diet than eat measly pork, the flesh of sheep 

 affected with liver disease, induced by the fluke parasite,, 

 and the wasted, or, which is quite as revolting, the arti- 



