EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
127 
rapid fattening. In the early stage, therefore, of flake, the 
health of the animal is in no way disturbed; it is much in 
the same condition of health as anv female animal is when 
under the first few weeks' influence of a gravid uterus ; the 
nervous and vascular systems are doubtless affected, but 
there is no change of organic structure, and the flesh is in 
a sound and healthy condition. As the parasites grow or 
increase in number they begin to drain and exhaust the 
vital power of their host, the animals pine away rapidly, 
disease is the consequence, and it is then only that the 
flesh becomes unwholesome. But in this stage of fluke it 
is never consumed, nor ever likely to be, because it is not hi 
a saleable condition; the flesh loses its colour, and is quite 
uneatable. From what I have stated it will be seen, then, 
that the mere presence of fluke in the viscera of any animal 
is no proof that it is unfit for human food, and for the 
inspectors of slaughter-houses to adopt such a test of whole¬ 
some food would be the greatest mistake. It would afford 
no protection to the public against unhealthy food, would 
increase the price of animal food, and be ruinous to our 
farmers and graziers. If the consumption of fluky beef 
and mutton were prejudicial to the health of man, there 
would be very few people alive in this part of the colony, 
for to my certain knowledge they have had no other animal 
food to live upon for the last twenty-five years, and I believe 
they may be compared, for physical ability, favorably with 
any other part of Australia. It is a still greater mistake to 
imagine, as some medical men do who have not given this 
branch of therapeutics much attention, that the notable 
increase of hydatid disease in the human subject may be in 
any way referable to the consumption of fluky meat. Long 
experience as a medical man and much observation as a 
stock farmer has led me to the conviction that such a 
theory is quite untenable. The distoma hepatica or liver 
fluke of the sheep is never found in any part of the human 
frame, at least there has been no clearly authenticated 
instance of it. The hydatid cyst of the liver, and of other 
organs of the human body, are prevalent enough, but in no 
case so far as I am aware has it been traced to be a trans¬ 
formation of the sheep parasite. The sheep fluke and its 
