COLD STORAGE OF MEAT A very small amount of the meat produced in this country at the present time is consumed near its place of slaughter. Cold storage plants and refrigerator cars have been constructed for the purpose of preserving meats until they can reach their destination, and to hold them awaiting market advances for the benefit of packers and tradesmen. [Sidenote: Decomposition of cold storage meat] Meat in cold storage is slowly undergoing a form of decomposition which is evidenced by the fact that cold storage meat decays much more rapidly upon its removal from storage than do the same cuts of fresh meat. The process of ripening meat in rooms of varying temperatures depends upon this form of decomposition. The natural enzyms of the meat, and the bacteria contained therein, digest a portion of the proteids, forming nitrogenous decomposition products, similar to the above-mentioned meat extractives. Ripened or storage meats contain a much larger per cent of this group of compounds than does fresh meat. [Sidenote: "Ripened meat" a step toward decay] The high flavor and "peculiar rich taste" of ripened meats is produced by these decomposition products, while the decay of the gelatinoid or connective tissue is the primary reason for its tenderness. There are certain species of bacteria that produce more poisonous waste-products than others, and this occasionally causes the development of ptomains in storage meat. [Sidenote: A choice between two evils] The use of flesh as an article of food is fraught with many serious and scientific objections, but the use of cold storage or ripened animal products is to be condemned from every standpoint of hygiene. Nevertheless, if people insist upon using flesh foods, and economical conditions make it profitable to produce them far from their place of consumption, cold storage methods seem inevitable. The choice between storage meats and home-killed is, in its last analysis, a matter of selecting the lesser of two evils. CONTAGIOUS DIS-EASES AND ANIMAL FOOD [Sidenote: Rare beef unfit for food] Much has been written as to how, from dis-eased animals, human beings have contracted contagious dis-eases, especially tuberculosis. The risk of such contagion has in all probability been much exaggerated. Flesh foods are seldom taken in an uncooked form, and dis-ease germs are usually destroyed by the sterilizing process involved in cooking. The cooking process, however, must be very thorough in order to destroy dis-ease germs; that is, the heat must be sufficient to coagulate the proteids. The interior of a rare beefsteak, such as popularly demanded by the flesh-eater, has not reached this temperature, hence this form of meat should be condemned on this ground if for no other. [Sidenote: Trichinosis]