y, and must
prevent the maintenance of the flesh in the clean and wholesome
condition in which it may have been up to the time of hanging in such a
place. A well-kept slaughter-house will have the ceilings, side walls,
and partitions frequently painted, or else scrubbed and washed. The
floor of the building, particularly, should be made water-tight, with
proper drains so that the blood shall not remain on the floor to
saturate the wood and develop decay. An abundance of clean water should
be provided, so that the area may be thoroughly washed as often as used,
with proper drains provided for carrying away the dirty water. The
ventilation of the building should be complete, and provision should be
made for lifting and moving carcasses without handling.

In most small slaughter-houses, the obnoxious practice prevails of
maintaining a herd of swine to consume the entrails of the slaughtered
animals, and a more fearsome and disgusting spectacle than a dozen
lean, active hogs fighting over recently deposited entrails and
wallowing up to their bellies in filth can hardly be imagined. Nor is
this any fanciful picture. The writer has seen it over and over again,
the income from the hogs thus fed being one of the principal assets of
the establishment. Such hog meat is not fit for food. The refuse from
the slaughter-house ought to be carried away and buried; its fertilizing
value will not be lost if it be put in the garden, and the effect of the
prompt removal of this refuse will be to improve the character of the
entire slaughter-house.

CHAPTER XII

_FOODS AND BEVERAGES_

Before discussing the question of suitable foods for individual needs or
the ill-health which is so likely to follow an unrestrained or unwise
diet, it will be well to trace briefly the passage of food through the
human body, with the various changes which take place in its mass from
the time it enters the mouth _until_ it is absorbed by the stomach.

_The human mechanism._

In a little book by Hough and Sedgwick entitled "The Human Mechanism,"
the authors point out that in many respects the human body is like any
machine developing energy by the conversion of certain kinds of raw
material. Thus, as the steam engine will use up coal in the development
of mechanical energy, so the human body will absorb food and convert it
into vital energy, and it is quite as important that the human body
shall have its source of energy properly adjusted to its