bles, to discriminate between what is good or bad. With regard to fish there can hardly be a mistake made, while as regards meat, even good authorities in England, such as Dr. Letheby, confess to doubts.

The most important staple of the food of the people of Bengal is rice. Of this grain there are numberless varieties, and, as a rule, unsound rice is seldom exposed for sale in the open markets. The greater portion of the rice is brought to market by boat, and accidents in the rivers and canals are of frequent occurrence. It often happens, therefore, and especially in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, that boats laden with rice are sunk in the channels, and some portion of the cargo is recovered after immersion for a longer or shorter time. In these cases, more particularly if the rice has been submerged in tidal or brackish water, it becomes sodden, decomposes, and is quite unfit for human consumption.

Rice is also occasionally damaged in large quantities by accidental fires, and by being drenched by the water poured over the burning buildings to extinguish the ffames, the combined action of heat, smoke, and water rendering it quite unfit for food. Smaller quantities are also damaged by leaky buildings, damp storage, bad harvesting, &c.

Natives of the poorer classes will, however, readily buy such rice at a nominal price and use it for food. It is also purchased by the makers and vendors of the coarse inferior sweetmeats or cakes called malpowas and dallpuries, which are largely consumed by the poor and labouring class, and which are well known to cause diarrhoea and colic. Such rice should at once be taken charge of by the Conservancy or Health Department, and

submitted for examination to a medical officer. Where there are any large pig-feeders, like the Chinese hogslard manufacturers of the Calcutta surburbs, it may be sold to them under bond, but otherwise it should be buried in the nightsoil trenches as the only safe way of preventing its being used.

It may possibly be that, after only a short immersion in clean fresh water, the rice, if spread out to dry in the sun, may, though deteriorated in quality as a commercial staple, be not actually unwholesome; but this the medical officer will determine. In this view, however, every facility consistent with security against removal without permission should be given to the owners to spread it out in the sun and turn it over to dry, the object being to prevent injury to the health of the people and not to confiscate property or add to the already serious loss which has fallen upon the owner.

It is, as a rule, easy to distinguish fish which has become unfit for food. Fresh fish differ very much in appearance from those that have become stale or have begun to decompose. The gill should be bright and red, not muddy, pale or discolored; the flesh firm, stiff, and elastic. On pressing the finger into the flesh it should at once rise; if it remains dented in, or has a doughy pasty feel, the fish is stale and unwholesome.

But perhaps the sense of smell may be the most reliable guide: tainted or putrid fish cannot be mistaken. Large quantities of chingrees in a putrid or semiputrid condition are often exposed for sale in the markets. It is well known that the consumption of fish or shell fish in such a state not unfrequently produces serious intestinal disorders, and this is the more to be dreaded

Danger of eating decomposed Fish. 193

in warm climates. There is no article of food in respect to which the lower orders are more reckless: they will eat fish in almost any stage of putridity. The Burmese and Siamese habitually eat rotten fish as a condiment under the name of gnapee and ballachong.

Even fresh fish and shellfish at certain seasons and with certain individuals produce serious illness. I have myself suffered from cholera from incautiously partaking of oysters out of season in Bombay, and at the present time two or three Bombay oysters, however fresh and good, in or out of season, are sufficient to produce violent choleraic symptoms. The same effect is produced on many persons from eating crabs and other crustacians, and if the fish be at all decomposed, the effects are more marked and violent. The sanitary officer should never hesitate to seize and impound any fish which he finds in any stage of decomposition, always remembering that when that stage has commenced, every hour adds to its intensity.

There is a very considerable trade in dried fish, which is not only a source of nuisance to the neighbourhoods where they are stored, but which is a most unwholesome article of diet when partaken of, as it often happens to be, in a state of putridity. Natives, as a rule, cannot be brought to see this, and consider the seizure and destruction of such fish an arbitrary and unjustifiable proceeding. A few days before this page was written, some cart-loads of such fish were brought to me for examination, the greater portion of the mass was moist and putrid, swarming with maggots, grubs, and weevils, and the smell arising from it most offensive and sickening, still the owners would not admit that the fish

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194

Unsound and decomposing Meat.

was in any degree offensive or unwholesome. It consisted of numerous kinds of freshwater fish, with a small admixture of the heads and tails of larger fishes, evidently the rejections of the market, but largely of small flat round fish, about the size of a rupee, and which when tilted into the trench for burial, looked like a heap of withered and decayed leaves.

A reference to the subject of unwholesome milk will be found under the head of Cow byres.

Meat is a much more difficult subject to deal with, especially with untrained native overseers and inspectors. The following simple hints may be a guide to the judging of good or bad meat:

The muscle should be firm, but elastic, neither too pale nor too dark. When the flesh is pale and moist, it is an indication that the animal was diseased. The fat should be firm, white, and with no sign of hæmorrhage.

Yellowness of fat is not always a sign of unwholesomeness, as feeding on oil-cakes has a tendency to color the fat.

Any juice which exudes from the meat should be small in quantity, reddish in color. There should be no softening mucilaginous fluid or purulent matter in the cellular tissue lying between the muscles.

This tissue also softens, and is easily torn when stretched, if decomposition has commenced.

The odour of the meat should be only slight, fresh, and pleasant. When meat is suspicious, but shows no distinct outward sign of putrefaction, it may still be detected by thrusting a long clean knife deep into the flesh and smelling the blade. When meat is commencing to putrefy, it becomes pale, moist, doughy, smells sickly and offen

Mortality among eaters of dead Meat. 195

sive, and gradually turns greenish; after this stage no mistake can be made, and no further instructions are necessary. The consequences of eating diseased and unwholesome meat are somewhat uncertain. Parkes says, “Instances are not at all uncommon where persons, after eating presumedly diseased meat, have been attacked with serious gastro-intestinal symptoms, vomiting, diarrhœa, and even cramp, followed in some cases by severe febrile symptoms. The whole complex of symptoms somewhat resemble cholera at first, and afterwards typhoid fever." On the other hand, it is well known that diseased meat has been largely eaten without producing any ill effects, and it is probable that the antiseptic power of thorough cooking may destroy the elements of parasitic disease.

The death returns of the suburbs, however, show that there is heavy mortality amongst the low classes of natives who habitually eat dead animals and diseased meat, such as the domes, mehters, chamars, and dosauds,. the death-rate in 1879-80 ranging from 100 to 151 per 1,000.

Large quantities of tinned provisions are now imported into the country and sold by auction, and it often occurs that some portions of the consignments are damaged or puffed as it is termed in the trade. These are bought up and retailed by bazar dealers and up-country boxwallas or itinerant vendors. Sickness, diarrhoea, and colic are not unfrequently caused by using tinned or canned provisions, especially lobsters and other shell-fish: the only guide the inspecting officer has is the condition of the cans. If the heads or ends of the cans are concave, they are usually good and wholesome; if, on the contrary,