Meat and its inspection : a practical guide for meat inspectors, students, and medical officers of health / by Arthur R. Litteljohn.

Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Meat and its inspection : a practical guide for meat inspectors, students, and medical officers of health / by Arthur R. Litteljohn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    called ' slaughter maturity.' The development of adipose tissue takes place in regular localities, such as the kidney capsules, mesenteries, omentum, subcutis, intermuscular tissues, liver, and bone marrow. According to the degree of development of the adipose tissue, animals are classified as poor, fattening, partly fattened, and completely fattened. ' Poor' animals show fat only in the omentum, mesen- teries, and kidney capsules. ' Fattening' animals have fat stored in the omentum, mesenteries, kidney capsules, and abdominal subcutis, this latter becoming more marked as the degree of fatten- ing increases. There is also a deposit of fat in the scrotum of males, and in front of the udder in young cows. ' Partly fattened' animals have the fat stored in the same places as in ' fattening' animals, but in greater quantity. ' Completely fattened' animals have fat stored in the kidney capsules for a thickness of an inch or more, and there is a thick layer of fat in the mesenteries, hiding the lymphatic glands. The omentum also becomes opaque and thickened with deposited fat. Under the peritoneum and pericardium, also, fat is stored, whilst the liver becomes cloudy, enlarged, and its borders thickened. The subcutis will be found loaded with fat, particularly on either side of the 'backbone.' Bones prominent in less fat cattle can no longer be seen or felt, and natural hollows become filled up. Streaks of fat have made their appear- ance between the muscular bundles and under the pleura. Estiviation of Fat Condition during Life.—Dealers in live- stock habitually determine the condition of food animals by palpation. In cattle the parts examined for this purpose are the angles of the haunch, between the buttocks and the root of the tail, the loins or false ribs, behind the shoulder- blade and the elbow-joint, in front of the stifle-joint, and in the region of the groin (scrotum and udder). In calves more importance is placed on * feeling' below and behind the ears. In pigs the dealer ' feels' along the windpipe, sternum, ribs, abdomen, angle of the haunch, and the root