EXTRACTS FROM GERMAN PERIODICALS. 
31 
made calves of so great weight too scarce to supply the popu¬ 
lar demand for veal. 
Computation of the avordupois is evidently not difficult, 
but its utility is questionable. What, may be asked, has the 
excellency of the meat in common with the quantity of the 
same ? 
Obviously, from the law of transmission, the weight of the 
offspring depends upon the race and general conformation of 
the parent stock, and varies from twenty to one hundred and 
twentv pounds at birth. 
If the injurious character of the immature meat cannot be 
proven, the fact that the milk of the mother, when used pre¬ 
vious to the eighth day after parturition, is prejudicial to the 
health, may be adduced in support of the theory. That this 
lacteal secretion acts as an irritant to the digestive tract has 
been abundantly substantiated. 
Were we to conclude the discussion by stating the flesh 
to be mature in the period of time above given, we should 
then also consider the numerous difficulties lying in the path 
of the administration of such a law as would reach this point. 
Dairymen possessing cows for the milk they yield, are of 
the opinion that they can obtain more for the fluid as such, 
than when the young is permitted to drain it from the mam¬ 
mae and incorporate it in their frames ; for this reason they 
endeavor to realize upon the calves at the earliest possible 
moment. Only the most imperative coercion could compel 
the owner to feed his veal a milk diet. Albert Iserlohn re¬ 
ports the abattoir rules of his district to be as follows: “ For 
the preservation of the public health, it is urgent that the age 
of the calf be noted. Animals under fourteen days old must 
not be brought to slaughter.” He observes that a good in¬ 
dication of the age is the umbilicus. The calf whose navel is 
not perfectly cicatrized mav not be used for human consump¬ 
tion. 
Koch stated that in Mecklenburg and Holstein only the 
heaviest and fattened calves are brought to the slaughter¬ 
houses ; it may have been otherwise in Reuter’s time. He 
says the coloration of the kidneys and consistency of the adi- 
