THE JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE MEDICINE AND VETERINARY ARCHIVES. EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY RUSH SHIPPEN HUIDEKOPER, Veterinarian (Alfort), W. HORACE HOSKINS, D.V.S., H. D. GILL, V.S. VOLUME XIX. OFFICE OF PUBLICATION: 3452 LUDLOW STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 1898. LONDON; Bailliére, Tindall & Cox. BY LEONARD PEARSON, B.S., V.M.D., VETERINARY DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Ir is not necessary to submit to this audience any argument to prove the importance of meat as an article of diet. This is a matter that is so thoroughly understood and universally recognized that it may be accepted as axiomatic that meat is not only essential as food, but that the activity of a people is indicated largely by the amount of flesh consumed. In 1890 the British Government published a table showing the amount of meat used in the different civilized lands. This table supports the statement just made. The amounts consumed per capita and per annum are as follows: Belgium and Holland Austria and Hungary Australia 111.6 kg. 54.4" Great Britain 47.6" Russia Germany 33.6" Italy 31.6" 31.3 kg. 29.0 64 21.8 " 22.2" 10.4" It will be seen that the amount consumed in the United States is greater than in any other part of the world, with the exception of Australia, where meat is so very cheap that only the more desirable portions are used as food, and the actual consumption is less than the figures indicate. Since flesh enters so largely into our diet, and since it is derived from animals that undergo the same disease-processes that we do, and is composed of such fragile compounds that it takes on irritant and toxic properties very quickly, unless handled with the 1 Read before the Keystone Veterinary Medical Association, November, 1897. |