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EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
of animals, even if killed in the early stage of the malady, 
that no fear need be entertained of their being used for food. 
Speedy decomposition must follow, and, indeed, in many of 
the cases it will be found to have begun even while the 
animal survives. With the general question of the flesh of 
cattle being used for food when the animal had suffered from 
pleuro-pneunomia and other diseases we have at present 
little to do; but it is well known that for years past hundreds 
of such cattle have been sent to the dead-meat markets, and 
no one single proof has been given of its direct injurious 
effects. 
We hold that the efficacy of the cooking process, if perfect , 
is a sufficient security against absolute injury, although it 
may be that such food is comparatively very deficient in the 
elements of nutrition. The temperature to which meat is 
exposed in the act of either boiling or roasting, by coagu- 
lating the albuminous matters, thus destroys the ferment 
which excites decomposition ; to say nothing of the anti- 
septic properties of the gastric juice after such food has 
entered the stomach. But, besides this, even in those 
diseases in which reproductive cells are the special organisms 
which produce the extension of a malady, their powers of 
propagation are destroyed by the same processes, of which 
we have a parallel example in cooked 6i measled pork.” 
The medical profession, acting in conjunction with our 
own may be of essential service in this matter; but we 
cannot imagine a less efficient means of accomplishing the 
desired end than that which it appears is about to be taken 
by the Board of Health, namely, the appointment of mem- 
bers of a profession who have never made the study of the 
diseases of the lower animals an integral part of their educa- 
tion, to report upon the nature and consequences of this and 
other epizootics. If the Board of Health, as a sectional divi- 
sion of the Government, feels that the application of sanitary 
measures to cattle and sheep are imperatively needed, and 
we are far from denying the necessity of this, then let it 
seek to nominate persons who are qualified by their special 
education and pursuits for the task, and none are so much so 
as the members of the veterinary profession. 
