for which the breeder is rewarded by the judges with a handsome prize. But, in reality, these prize-beasts are all, more or less, diseased by this over-feeding on highly stimulating food. Mr. Gamgee tells us of severe outbreaks of disease in cattle incidental to plethora—the blood becomes poisoned by the amount of carbon they are supplied with—the fat and flesh increase, especially the fat, in a remarkable manner, and the breeder profits, but the result is not so satisfactory to the consumer. The fine ruddy beef overwhelmed in fat we see adorned with holly at Christmas is, in reality, diseased food. We are loth to disparage the Roast Beef of Old England, but this over-fed prize-meat deserves no quarter. Some two or three years since, Mr. Gant, of the Royal Free Hospital, suspecting that the extraordinary high-pressure work suddenly put upon the great internal organs—such as the liver, heart, and lungs—of young animals thus fattened for the market, must be highly prejudicial to their health, determined to note some of these prize-beasts, and then to follow them up to the slaughterhouse and hold a post-mortem upon them. This he did: and the result was, that he found their hearts were all affected with “fatty” degeneration—a disease which affects humanity as well as beasts among that well-to-do portion of mankind who love their stomachs “not fondly but too well,” and who neglect those exercises of the body which will alone permit a man thus to indulge. The heart thus damaged, the whole circulation is interfered with, and the animal can by no means be said to be healthy. Such meat may therefore be justly classed under the head of adulterated food. It is bad enough to find our bread falsified in the course of its manufacture by man, but it is outrageous to find the poor beasts subjected to a similar falsification, making them miserable whilst in this life, and, to a certain extent, deleterious as food when dead; and, above all, it is truly monstrous to find a gigantic association, with dukes as presidents and experts as judges, selecting these bulky, apoplectic, plethoric, heart-diseased beasts as models of feeding, as fine examples of good meat, and as flowers of produce to be held up as patterns to the energetic stock-breeders of the land.
The question is, however, can we in any way prevent the evils we have pointed out, and restore the meat we eat to its natural healthy condition, before the free-trade introduced foreign diseases among our stock, and high feeding and fattening further deteriorated it? It is quite clear that the only means of insuring the slaughtering of healthy beasts only must be the introduction of some measure that covers the whole country. The rapidly growing practice of killing and dressing the meat in the country, and then forwarding it by rail, altogether frustrates any plan of mere inspection of metropolitan slaughter-houses; and we are told it is not sufficient to inspect the dead meat market at Newgate, inasmuch as there is much meat unquestionably diseased which does not look bad to the eye. Mr. Gamgee, for instance, says; “Many of the worst forms of disease are very sudden, and only slightly affect the colour and texture of the muscular apparatus. A fine fat bullock with florid meat may have died from splenic apoplexy, or been merely killed pro formâ when already on the point of death. Remove the spleen, and the carcase appears sound! Yet dogs and pigs in this country die from eating, although first cooked, any portion of such cattle.” It must be remembered, that town butchers send to the dead meat markets occasionally, as they cannot get sufficient of their own killing. Thus it will be seen that poisonous and unhealthy meat is as likely to reach the tables of the rich as those of the poor and middle classes. We have heard of persons being poisoned by eating a mutton-chop. Such dietetic eccentricities are generally ascribed to some peculiar idiosyncrasy of the individual so suffering. The effect of diseased mutton upon the stomach would, however, much more satisfactorily account for such a mishap. It is clear from what we have said, that a strict watch must be kept over the country slaughter-houses, as well as those in town, if we wish to prevent the bringing of diseased meat to town for sale.
The wilful spoiling of meat by the errors of diet is, we are glad to see, on the decrease, as the judges at our fat-cattle shows, in obedience to the public voice, have of late inclined to discourage the over-feeding of cattle, and look more now to their good points than to their powers of contributing to the grease pot. As the public voice cannot, however, reach the fraudulent meat purveyors, we must look to the Board of Health for protection against them, and upon the foundation of this Report we think the Legislature will feel inclined to act.
DRESS AND THE AGE.
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The tendency of modern dress is to give greater youthfulness to the appearance. This is especially the case in regard to men’s dress. The introduction of the turned-down collar, and its adoption by persons of all ages, took off ten years from the aspect of Englishmen generally. With the roideur of dress went also the stiffness of advanced age. The peace after Waterloo dealt the first blow to senility, by permitting civilians to discard at will the