Page:Foods and their adulteration; origin, manufacture, and composition of food products; description of common adulterations, food standards, and national food laws and regulations (IA foodstheiradulte02wile).pdf/126

 not it may be infected with pathogenic germs. The conclusions of the investigation are as follows (Bulletin No. 9, Hygienic Laboratory):

"Seven samples of gelatine examined; one showed tetanus spores.

"Two samples showed an oval end-spore rod, whose identity was not proved, but, in stained specimens, it would be hard to distinguish from tetanus, if indeed not tetanus with diminished virulence.

"In tetanus investigations it is important to use freshly made bouillon, as the organism is apt not to germinate in bouillon over ten days old. The thermal death point of the organism isolated was found to be between twenty and thirty seconds at 100 degrees C.

"It is important, therefore, that gelatine to be used for injections should be boiled at least ten minutes on account of the variability of the thermal death point in different species of tetanus. Whether this amount of heating impairs in any way the hemostatic power of gelatine has not been settled, but in case it does it is believed that the danger from tetanus more than overbalances its therapeutic value.

"It is suggested that when, as in hospitals, there is likelihood of gelatine injections being used for hemostatic purposes the gelatine solution be sterilized by the fractional method on three successive days and kept ready for use in sterile containers."

From the data given above it is seen that gelatine may become infected and the material from which it is made for edible purposes should be healthful, sanitary and fit for food. It is not likely that tetanus germs would prove dangerous when taken into the stomach, but freedom from infection should be secured if possible. These investigations show the wisdom of the pure food law in forbidding the use of parts of animals unfit for food, whether manufactured or not, in the production of food products. It is evident that a sufficient quantity of fresh, sanitary material or material properly preserved can be obtained in this country or in other countries to supply the needs for edible gelatine without resorting to the use of inedible parts of hides, horns, hoofs and other waste and unfit portions of the animal.

Summary.—Above have been presented some of the principal meat foods, the analytical data which show their composition, the processes by means of which they are prepared and the principal methods, objectionable and otherwise, by which they are preserved.

Meat is a staple article of diet among almost all nations of men. The anatomical structure of the human animal indicates that his environment has adapted him to eating meats of all kinds. In other words, man is an omnivorous animal. He has been developed in an environment in which all kinds of meats and vegetables have ministered to his sustenance, and thus he is an omnivorous animal both by evolution and necessarily by heredity. That man can live and flourish without meat has been fully established by