PEPSINE. 
337 
the author would only prevent the sale of such as proceeded 
from animals in whom emaciation coincided with disease, 
advanced age, and paleness of the fleshy fibre. He would 
also proscribe, although convinced of its harmlessness, the 
use of meat furnished by fatigued animals, or by those which 
have not sufficiently bled at the slaughter-house, by reason of 
its tendency to rapid decomposition. 
The signs which indicate that an animal has died naturally 
are, according to M. Soumille, when the entire animal is 
examined, lesions of certain viscera, coagulation of blood in 
the vessels, hypostases in the great splanchnic cavities, and 
injections or arborisations of the cellular tissue. When cut 
up, the meat is red, and blood flows from it when it is divided. 
Its surface is part-coloured, red, white, blue, and yellow, being 
mingled together. In animals that have been slaughtered in 
consequence of their fatigue, or of the bad care that has been 
taken of them, the characters, with less intensity, much 
resemble those indicated above. M. Soumille especially 
insists upon the injection of the muscular substance ; but he 
does not think that when the animal has been cut up, that 
any real difference can be established between the flesh of an 
animal which has been slaughtered on account of fatigue, and 
of one that has died a natural death. The former may be 
eaten, but M. Soumille recommends that the latter should 
be rejected, although he does not believe that it is capable of 
giving rise to ill consequences. Upon this point he has 
instituted experiments upon animals, the results of which are 
confirmatory of the conclusion arrived at by M. Renault, viz., 
the harmlessness of such meat . — Medical Times and Gazette. 
ON PEPSINE. 
By W. Stevens Squire, Pli. D. 
Some time since a new medicine, under the name of pep- 
sine, was introduced in Paris, and was extensively used there 
by Dr. Corvisart and others, apparently with considerable 
success in dyspepsia, apepsia, and certain cases of consump- 
tion. This preparation consists principally of a substance 
well known to chemists and physiologists, the nature and 
composition of which, however, is but imperfectly made out. 
It is, in fact, to a principle termed pepsine that the gastric 
juice chiefly owes its property of converting meat and other 
matters received into the stomach into a form in which they 
can be readily assimilated. 
XXX. 
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