114. Reynolds, 115. Roster, 116. Roth, 117. Rubner, 118. Ruedorff, 119. Sacchse, 120. Scheibe, 121. Schneider, 122. Sestini, 123. Smart, Fresenius' Zeitschrift, 5, 1866, 252. Berichte der Chemischen Gesellschaft, 13, 1880, 580. Fresenius' Zeitschrift, 19, 1880, 477. Kopp's Jahresbericht, 1865, 741. Zeitschrift fuer Biologie, 15, 1879, 115. Biedermann's Cen. Poggendorf's Annalen, 145, 1872, 279. Pharm. Zeitschrift für Russland, 1881, 431. Chemisches Polytechnisches Centralblatt, 1861, 1229. Chemisches Cen tralblatt, 6, 1861, 750. Kopp's Jahresbericht, 1861, 875. Fresenius' Zeitschrift, 6, 1867, 362. Bulletin, National Board of Health, supplement No. 11. 124. de la Souchere, Moniteur Scientifique, 1881, 790, 130. Tripe, 1881, 216. Chemisches Centralblatt, 4, 1873, 799. Ukeskrift for Landmaend, 1881, 20. Milch Zeitung, 10,- American Quarterly Microscopical Journal, 1, 1879, 294. The Engineer (London), 1864, 138. Zeitschrift der Archi tecten-und Ingenieur-Vereins fuer Hannover, 12, 1866, 150. Proceedings Society Public Analysts, 1, 1876, 119. 131. Van der Burg, Fresenius' Zeitschrift, 4, 1865, 276. 131a. Voelcker, Journal of Royal Agricultural Society, 23, 1862, 346. 132. Walz, American Chemist, 4, 1873, 169. 133. West-Knight, The Analyst, 5, 1880, 155. Fresenius' Zeitschrift, 20, 1881, 466. Berichte der Chemischen Gesellschaft, 12, 1879, 1585. Poggendorff's Annalen, 133, 1868, 121. Dingler's Pol. Poggensdorff's Annalen, 142, 1871, 471. Dingler's Pol Milch-Zeitung, 8, 1871, 67. Fleischmann, Das Molkerei wesen. Berichte der Chemischen Gesellschaft, 14, 1881, 1125. Reper- GROUP III. CANNED MEATS AND ANIMAL FOODS: MEATS - FRESH, SMOKED, SALTED, CANNED; EXTRACTS AND ESSENCES OF MEAT AND FISH; GELATIN AND ISINGLASS. BY ALBERT H. CHESTER, PH. D. Prof. C. F. CHANDLER, Ph. D., Chairman Sanitary Committee: My Dear Sir:-I take pleasure in submitting to you herewith my report, as one of the chemists under the Food and Drug Act, on Canned Meats and Animal Foods. Yours very respectfully, HAMILTON COLLEGE, ALBERT H. CHESTER, Ph. D., CLINTON, N. Y., Dec. 3, 1881. The use of animal food is so closely connected with physical force that it is a matter of vital importance to the welfare of any nation that its people should be supplied with cheap and wholesome meat. There can be no question that the physical superiority of the English over Continential nations is due in great part to the roast beef and mutton that have been so freely consumed in Great Britain, While life may be sustained and much work accomplished without any animal food at all, yet it is an acknowledged fact that severe bodily exertion cannot be sustained without it. This is recognized in the difference made in the diet of prisoners, depending on whether they are at hard labor or not, It is found that while milk, butter and cheese will be great additions to an otherwise purely vegetable diet, meat is the great work-producing agent, We are very fortunate here in this respect, and the poorest of our people can have meat every day of their lives and still a surplus be left to be sent abroad to feed people who would otherwise have to do without it. American lard, pork, and hams are supplied in all the European markets, and beef from this country is used to a large extent in Great Britain, all being sold cheaper than the home products. The great value of our exports of this class of food to some of the countries of Europe is shown by the following extract from a speech of M. Graux, the Belgian Minister of Finance. He is arguing against the imposition of a duty on meat preserves, and says: "To stop these importations would be to devote the working classes (of Belgium) to misery, if not to death; to obstruct their entry by means of customs-duties would be to impose on the masses prices which would only benefit the land-owners. It is thus that some amongst us, in order to protect the agricultural interests of the country and prevent the owners of agricultural lands from suffering that reduction of their rents which the common and universal law of supply and demand imposes, would have us, by stopping these importations, make a compact with famine and deliver our industrial and laboring classes to misery, decline and ruin." Fresh meat is, undoubtedly, the most important and valuable kind of animal food, as either salting or smoking it makes it less easily digestible. It is important that the animals should be properly killed, and the blood allowed to escape afterwards, and that the meat should be delivered to the customers in a sound condition; though meat is always better if it has been kept awhile before it is cooked, even nearly to the point of decomposition, The fibre of such meat is loose and tender and much more digestible. The best meat is from animals that have been fattened before being killed, The muscle of unfattened cattle contains about seventy-five per cent of water, with only two or three per cent of fat, while the flesh of fat cattle is marbled and streaked with fat which has to a certain extent taken the place of the water, and hence is much more valuable as food, Sound healthy meat can be recognized by its pale reddish color when first cut, the surface afterwards turning to a deep red color. The meat of animals that have died is of a deep purple color, not having been bled. Such meat often has an unpleasant odor, which healthy meat has not until it begins to decompose. Putrid meat may often be recognized by its odor, or by thrusting a knife into it. In healthy meat the resistance to the knife will be uniform while it will vary if it has begun to putrify within. The smell of the knife often affords useful information. There is not much danger from this kind of meat, for the customer himself will detect and refuse it. It is not so however with certain diseases of the flesh and the infection caused by parasites, which can only be detected by the use of the microscope, and public inspectors must be very vigilant to protect the people. This matter is one of great importance in cities, and is generally carefully looked after by local Boards of Health. The most common and dangerous of these affections is the presence of trichinæ in pork. TRICHINEÆ. The vast importance of the production of pork for home consumption and for export makes it desirable to give more than a passing glance at this part of the subject. Pigs are so easily fattened and the pork is so readily cured and preserved that it will always be one of the chief products of certain parts of the country. And it is no doubt a most useful food particularly for the mass of working people and in the winter. Many people hardly see fresh meat the year around, but consume great quantities of salt pork and smoked ham. Our exports of such food material is immense and constantly increasing. It is so cheap here that it can be sent to European markets and compete with their home products, so that the German peasant is to-day buying American pork and hams. But the fear that these American products may contain the pork worm, Trichina spiralis, is causing many of the European states to pass stringent regulations with reference to the admission of our products of this character, even including lard, in which certainly trichinæ cannot be found. Thus great damage is being done to our export trade. That this fear is not unfounded is too evident from the examinations made in Chicago by Mr. Attwood, who found trichinæ in eight per cent of the hogs killed in that city. There have been many cases of the disease, trichinosis, often ending in death, as the result of eating such meat. We have then two evils to guard against, the danger to ourselves if trichinous meat is used, and the damage to our trade abroad if we do not suppress the exportation of such meat. Consul Byers thus writes to the State Department from Zurich, Switzerland, showing the condition of things in that country. "There exists a Government order dated May 17, 1878, forbidding the importation of hams, bacon, etc., whether from America or elsewhere, unless said importation is accompanied by a certificate showing that the meat is 'healthy'. If no such certificate is presented, the meat must be submitted to a microscopic examination for trichinosis'. This certificate is charged for at the rate of about 25 cents a ham. The practice has been to be especially severe in the execution of this order as to American hams, as certain interested parties have frightened the population into the belief that eating American hams is simply to court death. The result is that American hams can scarcely be sold here at all, or if sold the dreaded word 'American' is left off, and the meat is offered as coming from Germany." Privy Councillor Ruloff in a recent lecture before the National Health Association, at Berlin, spoke as follows: "It is well-known that trichina is of frequent occurrence in America, therefore sausage, bacon and hams produced there must be considered as very dangerous. Inspections at various points show that from one to four per cent of these preserves contain trichinae. As may be easily foreseen, trichina will increase in America unless steps are taken to prevent it." We must therefore adopt measures to prevent the exportation of any such meat, and to prevent the further spread of the disease in the hogs raised in this country, if not to root it out altogether. For the first result it will probably be necessary to have every lot of bacon and ham, packed for shipment abroad, inspected for trichinae by officers appointed for the purpose, their certificates to be sent with the articles. Consul Byers is of the opinion that such certificates would be respected all over Europe, and that much of the prejudice now existing would be removed. For ourselves in this country, the danger is not so great, for we seldom eat our meat raw, as is so frequently the case abroad. And yet none of us wish to take the chances of trichinous meat even though we know it to be well cooked. Thorough cooking will certainly kill trichinæ, and we may rest easy as to danger from that source, if we only see to it that all the pork we eat has in all its parts been subjected to a temperature of at least 160 deg. Fahrenheit. It should be well understood that pork should never be eaten raw unless it has been carefully examined, and that the cooking must be thorough, and not a mere warming of the surface, if the probable trichinæ are to be killed. It is to be noticed that this parasite is seldom found in the home grown pigs generally eaten in the county. I have never found any in the ham and pork offered for sale in this village. It is in the large fattening establishments where meat is produced in immense quantities for sale in cities and for export, that it is most often found. Before looking for the means of protection from this pest, let us see how it is to be detected. The Trichina spiralis is a minute worm found coiled up in animal muscle, particularly in the flesh of swine, not, however, to be certainly distinguished by the naked eye, though such pork often has a speckled appearance. An examination with the microscope is necessary to reveal it in its coiled up form. The worm itself is enclosed in a little sac or cyst covered with a calcareous deposit, which effectually prevents further motion, although the inmate. is still alive. The above figure, taken from Dr. John Phin's little pamphlet on trichina shows the appearance of the worms in the encysted form. When meat is eaten containing these encysted worms, the gastric juice dissolves the coating of lime, and the worm is set free to roam at will through the muscles of his entertainer, be it man or beast, and to reproduce his own kind in myriads. They cause sickness and death if in sufficient numbers, but if this result is not reached, they soon become encysted in their new home, after which they are powerless for harm. A magnifying power of about fifteen diameters will easily serve for their detection, and the best instrument is of course the compound microscope in the hands of an expert; yet this is not necessary, for I have seen them distinctly with an ordinary hand magnifier having a power of only nine diameters. The best simple instrument that I have seen for this purpose, is the one figured in the cut below, called a trichinoscope, and recently devised by the Bausch & Lomb Optical Co., of Rochester. It is so easily used that no one of ordinary intelligence could have any difficulty with it. |