Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, April 1885Various
General
Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, April 1885
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals
The examination of the carcass is also necessary with the view of
determining the sound or unsound condition of the meat. At one time
it was doubted that the complaints from which animals suffer could
be communicated by eating their flesh, but the evidence of eminent
authorities has definitely settled the question. Such bovine diseases
as the several varieties of anthrax, the foot and mouth disease, and
especially tuberculosis, are now believed to be transmissible through
ingested meat. It has been proved that the pig fed with tuberculous
flesh becomes itself tuberculous, and the inference is fair that
man might acquire the disease if subjected to the same ordeal. This
last disease is very common amongst animals, and is now recognised
as identical with that which is so fatal to the human race. It is
considered highly probable that the widespread mortality caused by this
malady is due in a great degree to the consumption of the milk and meat
of tuberculous animals. That the milk supply should be contaminated is
a very serious affair for the young, who are chiefly fed on it. The
regular inspection of all dairies by skilled officials is imperatively
necessary to ward off a terrible and growing evil; just as a similar
inspection of slaughter-houses is demanded in the interests of the
meat-eating portion of the community.
Temperance is a noteworthy feature in the habits of the Jews. Their
moderation in the use of alcoholic drinks is deserving of the highest
commendation. Very rarely are they rendered unfit for business by
over-indulgence in this debasing vice. In no class of Jewish society is
excessive drinking practised. The poorest, in their persons, families,
and homes, present a marked contrast to their Christian neighbors in
the same social position. The stamp on the drunkard’s face is very
seldom seen on the countenance of a Jew. He is not to be found at the
bar of a public-house, or hanging idly about its doors with drunken
associates. His house is more attractive by reason of the thrift that
forms the groundwork of his character. Domestic broils, so common an
incident in the life of the hard-drinking poor, are most unusual. When
work is entrusted to him insobriety does not interfere with the due
and proper performance of it, hence his industry meets with its reward
in the improvement of his circumstances. This habit of temperance amid
abounding drunkenness, more or less excessive, is probably one of the
causes of the protection afforded to him during the prevalence of
some epidemic diseases, such as typhus, cholera, and other infectious
fevers. His comparative freedom from the ravages of these terrible
complaints has been chronicled by observers, both mediæval and modern,
and is now a subject of common remark. The latest instance of this
immunity is furnished by the records of the deaths from cholera in the
south of France, where it is affirmed that out of a considerable Jewish
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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