670 VETEEINAEY HYGIENE 



in the bullock, still less in the female, while in the cow the 

 posterior line of the quarters is distinctly concave. 



The pelvis is broader in the female than the male, and 

 the diameter of the pelvic brim is greater. 



The question of age in the bovine, may be assisted by the 

 fact that up to the age of three it is possible to cut through 

 the pelvic symphysis with the knife ; up to the age of four 

 years the costal cartilage of the ninth rib can be cut with 

 comparative ease, at five years it is difiicult, and at six 

 impossible. 



The junction between the summits of the dorsal vertebrte 

 and the processes themselves are cartilaginous up to the 

 sixth year, and even up to the eighth year a thin layer of 

 cartilage may be seen in the first four or five vertebrae ; up 

 to the twelfth year the separation is represented by a red 

 line, which after this disappears. 



Pathological Changes lohich Render Flesh Unfit for Food. 



This is at times rather a difficult subject, as no hard-and- 

 fast lines can be drawn. Two animals might be affected 

 with the same disease ; take for example distomatosis in the 

 sheep, one might be quite fit for consumption, the other unfit, 

 the difference in the two depending upon the freedom or not 

 of the muscular tissue from the general anaemic changes. 



So with a pleurisy of traumatic origin, one ease might be 

 passed another rejected as food, depending on the period 

 which has elapsed since the injury occurred, and whether 

 the wound is aseptic or no. If the animals were destroyed 

 before febrile changes took place no exception could be 

 taken to the flesh ; if some days have been allowed to elapse, 

 and should perforation of the chest via the oesophagus have 

 taken place, the flesh is often quite unfit owing to febrile 

 and other disturbances. 



These two broad rules govern the majority of cases ; 

 what is known as ' fevered flesh ' may be met with in 

 any disease where a high temperature exists, quite irre- 

 spective of the nature of the disease. 



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