Population Increasing — Meat Supply Decreasing — The Tendency to Raise Hogs — Is the Hog a Safe Article of Diet? — Is Flesh Food a Necessity
By D. H. Kress, M. D.
The increase in the production of cattle in the United States is not keeping pace with the increase in population, hence the price of beef is getting out of the reach of the average American citizen.
INCREASE OF POPULATION — DECREASE OF MEAT
Between January, 1907, and January, 1913, the number of beef cattle decreased by no less than 15,970,000 head, while our population increased by about 10,000,000 — an increase of twenty-four per cent in population, with a decrease of over thirty per cent in the production of cattle. There seems to be no prospect of changing the present trend, and meat is bound to be higher and still higher in price.
The committee appointed to investigate this problem, in reporting to the United States Chamber of Commerce, gave as the chief cause the fact that land has become too valuable for grazing purposes. It is estimated that on an average a steer requires about twenty-five acres annually for grazing.
Little encouragement for relief was found by the committee, except in raising hogs. Possibly in the future, the hog industry may supplant largely the cattle industry of the Western States.
A BLESSING IN DISGUISE
This decline in the meat industry should be regarded as a blessing in disguise. There can be no doubt that in America we have been eating altogether too much meat. Should the meat bill be cut in half, our people would be greatly benefited thereby, physically, morally, and financially. It is perfectly safe to give up the use of meat wholly, provided it is done intelligently. Thousands are doing so, and are thus solving the problem that is so perplexing to our government officials.
The various food elements required by the human body may be obtained from either the animal or the vegetable kingdom. The strongest and best nourished animals we have, feed upon the vegetable kingdom, and are thus daily demonstrating to mankind that it is possible at least to exclude meat from our bill of fare.
SECONDHAND FOODS
This may be said in favor of a fleshless diet: In obtaining our food direct from the vegetable kingdom, we obtain it unassociated with impurities or disease; while in obtaining it from the animal kingdom, we get the same elements, only at second hand, at best, with the possibility of having communicated diseases of various kinds that afflict the animal kingdom.
PURE AIR AND PURE FOOD
Much, it is claimed, has been accomplished in the prevention and successful treatment of modern diseases, by merely supplying a liberal amount of pure air day and night.
Why is pure air so essential? Not because it contains a greater amount of oxygen, for impure air may not be deficient in this respect. The chief objection to the inhalation of impure air is the fact that the desirable element — oxygen — has associated with it undesirable, poisonous wastes.
Rosa Bonheur
Animals are more and more taken away from their congenial, open fields, and disease is spreading among them. The danger from using their carcasses for food is constantly increasing.
The same objection that applies to the breathing of impure air, applies to the eating of impure food.
Meat is not a pure food. The proteid found in meat is indeed an essential food element. If this were all meat contained, no serious objection could be raised against its use as a food. But the proteid in meat has associated with it body wastes.
In vitiated air, we have a mixture of oxygen and eliminated body wastes. In meat, we have a mixture of proteid and retained body wastes. The inhalation of impure air, and the ingestion of impure food, are therefore alike injurious. Both tend to vitiate the blood, thus lowering the vitality of the tissues, and paving the way for germ diseases, or bringing about premature decay.
INCREASED LIABILITY TO DISEASE
Not merely is the liability to take germ diseases greatly increased by meat eating, but persons who use meat freely are more likely to die of these diseases when stricken down with them than are those who use meat moderately or not at all. The rapid increase in deaths from pneumonia and Bright's disease, apoplexy and heart failure, in modern times, is no doubt partially due to a contaminated blood stream resulting from the free use of meats.
In breathing, the aim is to get oxygen unassociated with impurities. In eating, the aim should be to get food elements unassociated with impurities.
Meat extracts have in the past been recommended for the sick, but it would be just as rational to recommend vitiated air for the sick as to recommend beef tea or chicken broth. The sick, above all people, need pure food. It is estimated that one pound of meat contains about fourteen grains of uric acid; and in addition, it contains other wastes. The soluble portion of meat, or what is known as extractives, is chiefly made up of wastes.
NO NOURISHMENT IN BEEF BROTH
Dr. H. W. Wiley says: “There is no nourishment in broth or in the so-called meat extracts. Every one of the so-called invalid foods made from meat is a fake of the worst kind. Extract of beef is absolutely without value as a food. A dog fed on beef extract for eleven days died of starvation. He was given all he could eat. Makers of the best known extract do not claim it to be a food. They say it is a stimulant, not a food.”
This is true. The properties that give meat its supposed value as a food, are the poisonous wastes. These, when introduced into the system, irritate or fever it the same as alcohol. They produce what is known as stimulation. But these poisons render the blood and the tissues impure, and produce degeneracy and premature old age.
FLESH FOODS AND DISEASE
Aside from the fact that flesh foods introduce impurities into the system, and lower the vitality of the tissues, thus preparing the soil for disease germs, such germs are frequently communicated directly to man through the consumption of the flesh of diseased animals. Disease among the lower creatures is alarmingly common, and no one can be sure that the meat he eats is healthy.
Leprosy is supposed to be due to the use of diseased fish.
Flesh eating is in part responsible for the prevalence of tuberculosis — “the great white plague,” from which 150,000 deaths occur annually in the United States alone.
While impure air and impure food lower the vital resistance of the tissues of the body, infection, it is now held, takes place chiefly not through the lungs, but through the alimentary canal, by the use of foods or drinks that contain the germs of tuberculosis.
MEAT AND TUBERCULOSIS
Tuberculosis is a common disease among cattle. Many of the animals slaughtered at the large abattoirs give visible evidence of having the disease.141
So common is disease among these creatures, that a member of the city board of health of Chicago said if all the diseased meat were rejected, “the price of meat would be a dollar a pound.” A chief inspector of meat said, “If all the poor meat were condemned, half the population would have to go without any at all.” That means that at least one half the people are eating diseased meat all the time, or all are eating diseased meat one half of the time.
Butchers cut out the conspicuously diseased portion, and the remainder of the carcass they sell to an unsuspecting public. But such meat is diseased and dangerous. At the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis, held in Great Britain, in 1895, it was reported of the numerous experiments that had been made, that “the apparently healthy flesh of tuberculous cattle,” not the manifestly diseased organs, “had been swallowed by various animals, with the result that the disease had in many cases fatally followed the ingestion of such infected material.” If the lower creatures become diseased by eating such meat, man is not immune.
ONE COW IN FOUR HAS IT
It is estimated that fully one fourth of the cattle are afflicted with tuberculosis. Creatures having the disease may be well nourished, and give no visible evidence of being diseased. It is only in the later stages of the disease that the animal becomes emaciated and is suspected.
Cancer is another disease that is very common among cattle. In New Zealand, where I saw the finest appearing cattle I have ever seen, I found cancer to be a very common disease among them. I was not surprised to be told by a resident surgeon later that cancer in man was also very common. The cancer germ usually selects fat subjects. It is not at all unusual to find animals that are fattened for slaughter cancerous.
I am convinced that the free use of meat is responsible to a great extent for the prevalence not only of tuberculosis and cancer, but also of scrofula, tumors, and other like affections which are so common among men, and that the suffering and mortality from meat eating are not discerned at present as they will be in the near future. Some of the best medical authorities have affirmed also that appendicitis is practically confined to meat-eating countries. While there are other causes for this disease, it is chiefly confined to meat eaters.
FOODS FROM SAFER SOURCES
In view of all this, there certainly is no excuse for eating flesh of animals so long as the food elements to supply the needs of the body can be obtained from safer sources, and unassociated with impurities. In the absence or scarcity of better foods, we may be justified in running this risk; but no man can afford to continue such a practice in a land where fruits, cereals, legumes, vegetables, and other wholesome foods are so abundantly provided as they are in America.
In the simple products of the earth furnished by nature, no food element is lacking that the human body requires. Does not the animal upon whose flesh we subsist, derive from the vegetable kingdom the elements out of which it builds strong bones and muscles? If so, why should man take his food at second hand, or after it has become animalized, and thus fill his body with animal wastes, and run the chances of introducing germs of disease? Why lower the vitality of the tissues by taking impurities into the body, and thus pave the way for germ diseases, or bring about degenerative changes and premature old age?
THE UNCLEAN SWINE
“The swine . . . is unclean to you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.” Lev. 11:7, 8. This was the instruction given to the children of Israel in the wilderness.
There is probably no history recorded, of greater importance to us to-day than that of the children of Israel; for “all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” 1 Cor. 10:11, 12.
The promise was given them: “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.” Ex. 15:26.
“And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.” Deut. 7:15. God purposed to demonstrate before the nations of the earth the beneficence of His laws, by making of Israel a healthy and a holy people. And through them He designed to bring great blessings to the nations about them. “Keep therefore and do them,” He said; “for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” Deut. 4:6.
THEY CRIED FOR MEAT
To fulfill to them His promises, He withheld from them the flesh of animals. But with this arrangement they were displeased, and found fault. “The mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting,” we are informed; and then “the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? . . . There is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.” Num. 11:4-6.
Then the Lord said: “Ye have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the Lord will give you flesh, and ye shall eat.” Verse 18.
He gave them their desires, but terrible were the results. A great plague broke out among the people, and thousands of them died. “And He called the name of that place Kibroth-hattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted.” Verse 34. “Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.” 1 Cor. 10:6.
THE LAW OF UNCLEAN MEAT
As they were not satisfied with the food God had provided for them, He consented to grant their requests, and continue to give flesh as an article of food to all who desired it. This necessitated added statutes, that they might be able to differentiate between the clean and the unclean animals. These statutes are recorded in Leviticus 11, and among them is the one pertaining to the swine, “He is unclean to you.” “He is unclean.” Dare any one find exception142to this statement? Can it be contradicted? We all recognize the hog as an unclean animal. “As dirty as a pig” is an everyday expression of disgust. The hog revels in filth. At no other time is he so contented as when in a dirty puddle up to his nostrils. We recognize that he is a scavenger. There is nothing under the sun that is too filthy for him to eat. Dead rats, cats, dogs, snakes, or hogs are sweet morsels to him. The entrails of cattle he is exceptionally fond of. He will pass by the most wholesome food to get at a decaying animal carcass. I have not overdrawn the picture in the least. He is a hog, nothing more and nothing less.
WHAT THE HOG EATS
The hog is composed of what he feeds upon. It follows that his flesh is unfit for human consumption; for the impurities concealed in the tissues of the animal may thus be directly introduced into the human body. This not merely paves the way for germ diseases, but tends to bring about degeneracy of the tissues, and a grossness of both body and mind. Hence the wise restrictive command, “Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.”
DISEASE PREVALENT WITH HOGS
Disease is more prevalent among hogs than among possibly any other creatures used as food. Tuberculosis is especially prevalent among them. Benton R. Rogers, D. V. M., in an address published in the Bulletin of the Iowa State Institution for October, 1904, said: “In four years’ work as inspector, I have seen no less than ten thousand such animals, to say nothing of a like proportion which two hundred other federal inspectors have seen.” No less than two million tuberculous hogs, it appears from this statement, were seen by these two hundred inspectors in four years. What became of these hogs? — They were consumed by an innocent public. He further said that tuberculosis was not confined to suspected animals merely, for “the high-bred, high-priced, pedigreed animals, those in prime, fat, and apparently healthy in condition, are often as thoroughly saturated with disease as is the scrub.”
How difficult it is to detect the disease, will be seen from the following: “Among seven hundred and fifty hogs which were discovered to be tuberculous after being slaughtered, we are not able,” he says, “to discover, on examination before slaughter, a single hog that we could positively say was tuberculous, and we were not even able to suspect more than about fifty.” Thousands of these diseased creatures are daily slaughtered, and are consumed as food.
But tuberculosis is not the only disease that these creatures are subject to. Cholera is common among them. American hogs are never free from this disease. W. J. Kennedy, of the Iowa state experiment station, estimated that the mortality from this disease among hogs reached the million mark during the year 1913, and the total loss, twelve million dollars.
When cholera appears among them, they are sent to the markets as quickly as possible, and are slaughtered, few owners being willing to sustain so heavy a loss as otherwise would follow. The daily papers do not attempt to conceal the fact that these animals are sold for food. The following I culled from a Chicago paper while the epizootic was raging in the West:
“Hog Market Stronger”
“Hogs were firmer. Receipts were more moderate, and the percentage of sick hogs which have been running so freely lately, was small, so that there was not the usual bearish pressure on the market.”
With the farmer and the buyer and the butcher it is purely a cold business proposition. If the animals are diseased, it merely means they will be purchased at a lower rate. When the disease appears in a herd of swine, it runs rapidly through the entire herd. Many of the animals become infected by being in fields or pens with diseased ones, and are rushed off to the market and slain before the disease itself has a chance to do its full work. There are many obscure and sudden deaths that might be traced to this source.
Trichinae in swine, known as “measly143pork” by butchers, are another source of danger in eating pork. The term “measly pork” properly refers to various forms of tapeworm cysts, which may be detected by the naked eye, while true trichinae cannot, as a rule, be seen without a microscope. It is well known that trichinae may be present in large numbers in pork without being detected. Hence the great danger from its use as an article of food. Trichinae are common among rats caught in slaughter houses; corncribs, barns, etc. As high as twenty-eight per cent of them have been found infected. The hog is recognized as “the champion rat catcher”; and in feasting upon these creatures, the trichinae are communicated to it. If one hog dies, the others at once set to the task of eating up the carcass.
It is true that the trichinae may be destroyed by thorough cooking; but even so, an animal infested with them is totally unfit for food.
BOTH DISEASED AND DIRTY
The chief objection to the use of swine’s flesh is not the fact that the diseases named are so common, but because the creature itself at its best is unclean. No amount of boiling or stewing or baking can improve it. A clean thing cannot possibly in this manner be brought out of an unclean. Those who feed upon such food, in time become physically unclean; and physical uncleanness paves the way for moral uncleanness. Grossness of body, mind, and morals is frequently traceable to such a diet.
THE GERMS OF DECAY
The more impurities meats contain, the more rapidly will they undergo putrefactive changes. Hog’s flesh decays quickly. It has within it the putrefactive germs in great numbers, and the medium upon which they thrive best. Cases of acute ptomaine poisoning from eating ham sandwiches are common. There were in the United States last year over thirteen thousand cases of ptomaine poisoning. Many of the victims died in a few hours after infection, while others had a narrow escape from death, some being partially disabled for life as a result of the poison.
There are many thousands of cases of ptomaine poisoning of a milder type, where the poison is formed slowly in the colon from the putrefactive changes that the meat undergoes. The poison is not formed and absorbed sufficiently rapidly to cause serious symptoms, but many severe headaches and other disabilities could with a little difficulty be traced to the use of pork.
