Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 49.djvu/150

138 that a more liberal policy in spending public money for river and harbor improvements would, in the long run, be the most economical.

The Bamboo as a Food.—Young bamboo shoots are eaten by the Chinese and Japanese as we eat asparagus. Dr. Lamounier, who has a collection in his garden at Verneuil, France, tried two or three species at a right age, and found them excellent. The stalks should be taken very young during the first fortnight of spring growth, and should not be more than fifteen centimetres thick. The outer envelopes of spathes are taken off, and the soft substance is left, crisp and brittle, and yielding easily to the pressure of the finger. Dr. Lamounier says they have the general taste and flavor of Brussels sprouts, and that they are wholesome, easily digestible, and economical. But all depends on the time of cutting and the preparation. Some canned bamboo, exhibited by the Japanese at Paris in 1889, was found hard and flavorless. We have these differences, too, in asparagus and all vegetables, while we judge the quality of the same from their best, not from their worst.

Tuberculosis and Meat Inspection.—In a paper presented to the New York Academy of Medicine during last November, Prof. Leonard Pearson, of the University of Pennsylvania, gave a résumé of the recent work of foreign veterinarians on bovine tuberculosis. We take the following points from a reprint of the address in the Dietetic and Hygenic Gazette. "This subject," he says, "has been a live one in Europe for many years, and has received much attention ever since it was shown by Villimen, in 1868, that the disease could be transmitted from one animal to another, and more especially since the discovery of the tubercle bacillus by Koch in 1882 and the consequent establishment of the fact that the tuberculosis of men and the lower animals is the same disease and caused by the same germ. Most of the European countries now have a system of meat inspection, which is carried out most carefully in the great centers of population, and usually assures the consumer against harmful flesh. The question as to what shall be done with tuberculous carcasses has excited much discussion. There is practically unanimity regarding the immediate and entire destruction of the carcasses of animals that show generalized tuberculosis, or tuberculosis with marked emaciation, but the cases of localized tuberculosis are much more common, amounting Ln some places to fifteen or eighteen per cent of all cattle slaughtered. The careful experiments, however, of Chauveau, Nocard, Bollinger, Bang, and McFadyan have shown that the flesh of animals with local tuberculosis is not infectious. It has been shown, however, that if there are any tuberculous spots the butcher is likely to get infected material from this spot on his knife and spread it more or less generally over the carcass. At the International Veterinary Congress held last September in Berne, it was decided by resolution that the flesh of tuberculous animals should be condemned when the carcass is emaciated, when it has a general bad appearance, when tubercles are found in the muscular portions, and when alterations are found in several organs. It was also recommended, in relation to the flesh of slightly tuberculous animals, that it be permitted to go on the market, but that it be sold in special shops or stalls, or sterilized and sold as cooked meat. In Germany the practice is to condemn the worst cases, sterilize those that are less extensive, and to pass as sound the slightly developed cases, after destroying the affected parts. A very important point in connection with this subject is in reference to the payment of indemnity to the owner of the condemned animal or carcass. It is felt that, as the animal is condemned for the good of the public, they should bear part of the loss. Already in France it is the custom to compensate the owners of infected animals which are destroyed. The consideration of the milk from tuberculous cows is also of great importance. Numerous investigations have demonstrated that the milk of cows with tuberculosis of the udder will cause tuberculosis in a very large percentage of the animals fed upon it. Ostertag recommends that the milk from cows with tuberculosis of the udder should be excluded from consumption, and that from cows which react to tuberculin, but show no evidence of tuberculosis of the udder, should be sterilized before sale. In a recent report from the