V 
APPEARANCES  OF  GOOD  AND  BAD  MEAT. 
265 
bustion  should  produce  a  considerable  proportion  of  carbonic 
oxide,  to  the  injurious  properties  of  which  M.  Leblanc  has  testi- 
fied. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  the  theory  of  combustion,  the  gen- 
eral formation  is  not  without  interest.  In  the  first  place  it  is 
contrary  to  the  positive  axiom  that  the  who'e  amount  of  the  hy- 
drogen of  hydrocarbons  is  completely  burned  during  incomplete 
combustion,  leaving  free  carbon. 
Now  in  the  imperfect  combustion  of  napthaline,  a  body  much 
less  hydrogenized  than  the  acetylene  C4H2,  which  it  engenders, 
it  must  be  admitted  that  a  portion  at  least  of  the  original  carbide 
loses  its  carbon  before  its  hydrogen — CwH8==4C4H2-f-C4. 
In  fact,  the  combustion  of  hydrocarbonated  bodies  is  not 
effected  at  once,  but  by  a  series  of  decompositions.  The  first  of 
these  decompositions  causes  the  formation  of  special  products, 
depending  on  the  particular  nature  of  the  combustible  bodies ; 
the  first  product  of  the  incomplete  combustion  of  alcohol,  for  in- 
stance, is  aldehyde.  Then  come  the  general  products,  formed 
during  all  combustions  and  preceding  the  water  and  carbonic 
acid.  Carbon  and  carbonic  oxide  are  the  only  two  general  pro- 
ducts of  this  nature  hitherto  known ;  to  these  my  experiments 
have  added  acetylene. — Chem.  News,  Feb.  16,  1866,  from 
Comptes  Mendus,  lxii.,  94. 
APPEARANCES  OP  GOOD  AND  BAD  MEAT. 
Dr.  Letheby,  in  a  report  on  the  cattle  plague,  gives  the  follow- 
ing characters  of  good  and  bad  meat,  which  are  especially  inter- 
esting at  the  present  time  : — 
"  Good  meat  is  neither  of  a  pale  pinkish  color  nor  of  a  deep 
purple  tint.  The  former  is  indicative  of  disease,  and  the  latter 
is  a  sign  that  the  animal  has  died  from  natural  causes.  Grood 
meat  has  also  a  marbled  appearance  from  the  ramifications  of 
little  veins  of  intercellular  fat ;  and  the  fat,  especially  of  the  in- 
ternal organs,  is  hard  and  suety,  and  is  never  wet ;  whereas  that 
of  diseased  meat  is  soft  and  watery,  often  like  jelly  or  sodden 
parchment.  Again,  the  touch  or  feel  of  healthy  meat  is  firm  and 
elastic,  and  it  hardly  moistens  the  fingers ;  whereas  that  of  dis- 
