CHAPTER XI 

 THE TYPES 



183. The block group. — Preliminary to the considera- 

 tion of beef cattle, those features characteristic of all the 

 block group, namely, beef cattle, mutton sheep and fat 

 hogs, in common, may be disposed of. 



All vertebrates are possessed of a muscular system 

 mounted upon a skeleton foundation which serves the 

 purpose of locomotion or any other motion of which the 

 animal is capable. Under feral conditions animals resort 

 to movements of various kinds for their sustenance and 

 their protection. The husbandman has in this instance, 

 as in many others, perverted a natural function into other 

 lines more useful to him, and this muscular system which 

 was furnished the animal as a means of moving, living 

 and having its being becomes the source of one of man's 

 most concentrated, nutritious and digestible foods. 



184. Meat, although it may mean any food, is gen- 

 erally understood to be a portion of the animal's body 

 composed chiefly of muscle, the connective tissue by which 

 it is supported, the fatty tissue by which it is enveloped 

 and interspersed, and the section of the skeleton upon 

 which it is mounted. The animal from which the meat is 

 secured gives to it its specific nature, as beef, mutton, or 

 pork. Meat, however, is a carcass term and is not ap- 

 plied to the tissue mentioned in the living animal. The 

 synonymous term, having reference to the animal rather 



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