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76
Lastly, when good meat is examined under the
microscope, the fibre is clean and well defined, and
free from infusorial creatures; but that of diseased
meat is sodden, as if it had been soaked in water,
and the transverse markings are indistinct and far
apart; besides which, there are often minute
organisms like infusorial bodies. These are very
perceptible in the flesh of animals affected with the
cattle plague, and Dr. Beale has described them as
entozoa like objects. They differ altogether from
the parasites which constitute the trichina disease,
and the measles of pork.
How far the use of diseased meat affects the
human constitution is unknown. In those cases
where certain parasitic diseases exist in animals,
there is no doubt of its injurious nature; for the
tape-worm, the trichina, and certain hydated or
encysted growths are unquestionably produced by
it. Experience also points to the fact, that carbuncle,
and common boils, are, in some degree,
referable to the use of the flesh of animals affected
with pleuro-pneumonia; and occasionally we witness
the most serious diarrhoea and prostration of
the vital powers after eating diseased meat. It is,
therefore, safest to forbid its use; and it is at all
times best to guard against the possibility of injury,
by having meat well cooked. It should be so