ndigenous, and the foreign,
or contagious. It is the latter form which has become the scourge of the
ox tribe in this country, though unknown here until the year 1841, when
it appeared as an epizooetic, and carried off vast numbers of animals.

The contagious pleuro-pneumonia is an extremely severe inflammatory
disease, and is produced--not in the same way that common pleuro-pneumonia
is, by exposure to excessive cold, &c.--but by a blood poison received
from an infected animal. In the congestive stage of the disease there is
no structural alteration in the organs of the animal, and if well bled
its flesh might (probably) be safely eaten; but when a large portion of
the lungs becomes solidified, and rendered incapable of purifying the
blood, is it not doubtful, to say the least, that the blood or flesh is
perfectly wholesome? The blood, during the life of the animal, is in a
state of fermentation; there is extreme fever, and the animal presents
all the characteristic symptoms of acute disease. On being killed, the
flesh, if the disease be of a fortnight's duration, will usually be
extremely dark, but in a less advanced stage of the malady the flesh
will generally present a healthy appearance. Is it really so? That
is the question which science has to determine. Going upon a broad
principle, I can hardly conceive that so serious a disease as
pleuro-pneumonia does not injuriously affect the quality of the flesh.
It is no argument to say that thousands consume such flesh, and yet
enjoy good health. Millions of people drink water and breathe air that
are extremely impure, and yet they do not speedily die. It is one thing
to be poisonous, another to be unwholesome. The flesh of animals killed
whilst suffering from lung distemper is not directly poisonous, but who
can prove that it is not, like bad water, unwholesome?

As analyst to the city of Dublin, I am almost daily called upon to
inspect meat suspected to be unwholesome; and I have always condemned
as being unfit for human food:--

1. Animals slaughtered at the time of bringing forth their young.

2. Oxen affected with pleuro-pneumonia, when pus is present in the
lungs, or the flesh obviously affected; animals suffering from
murrain, black-quarter, and the different forms of anthrax.

3. Animals in an anaemic, or wasted condition.

4. Meat in a state of putrefaction.

During the present year about 20,000 pounds weight of meat have been