17 SEPTEMBER 1870, Page 11

MEAT.

THE word itself is a curious study, so significantly has it changed, or, to speak more accurately, narrowed its meaning. Everyone is familiar with its use in the Authorized Version of the Scriptures. There it means simply and generally " food." This usage still holds its place in literary English. It even lingers in the common speech. An old-fashioned signboard will announce to the wayfarer that he may find within "Man's meat and horse's =meat." The. proverb " What's one man's meat is another man's poison " recalls the wider signification of the word. And we still talk, though the phrase is growing obsolete, of "butchers' meat." But, on the whole, " meat," used absolutely, means "flesh," -which word, indeed, it has altogether superseded. It would not be easy to parallel the usage in any other language ; and it is significant of a change in our national manner of living. Flesh, it means to say, is the only food that we English- speaking people think worthy of the name. Of course if any foreigner, ignorant of the real condition of the people, were to generalize hastily from the phrase as to what constitutes their food,

• he would be greatly mistaken. As a matter of fact, there are mil- lions of people in England to whom flesh-meat is a rare luxury ; and probably thousands who never taste it, even in the shape of bacon, • except by accident. And to the great majority of the people bread is :still the staff of life, and therefore really, though not in name, their " meat." It is, we believe, a fact, that a rise in the price of bread .brings down, or, at all events, does not raise, the price of meat, which becomes a luxury when the real permanent necessary of life • becomes difficult of attainment. To the more affluent classes, on the other hand—and these have most to do with settling the usage ..of words—dear bread causes no inconvenience to be compared with -that which comes from dear meat.

And Meat, as our readers will have learnt to their -cost, has been growing terribly dear of late, and is scarcely likely, as far as we can see, to become much cheaper. Our first ..impulse, of course, under these circumstances, is to accuse the retailers of making extravagant profits. And, at first sight, it -seems easy to make out a case against them. There are no costs -of manufacture, as with the baker, to perplex the account, which, inched, seems simple enough. As we write, the topmost market priors quoted in the Times are for beef 5s. 6d., for mutton 5s. 8d., per stone of eight pounds, which gives a price of 8j•d. and 8j d. per pound rtspectively. Now the butcher charges for meat, which cer- tainly is not always, and indeed, from the limitation of the supply, cannot always be of the very best quality, prices which range from 8d. up to ls. per pound ; and he has besides, we understand, the profit of what is called the "fifth quarter," skin, feet, insides, &c. Accordingly, we find that meat can be retailed at much lower prices. Dr.Wynter* tells us of an association in Clifton which supplies meat at 7id. per pound. And as such associations do not seek to make any profit whatever, this cheapness is quite intelligible. But it must be remembered that the " distribution " of this particular article is a very difficult, disagreeable, and risky business, one which the supply associations do not ordinarily care to undertake. There are times at which the butcher is subject to losses such as no other retailer is liable to, at least iu a like degree. A sudden rise of temperature, for instance, such as we frequently have at seasons when it is commonly necessary to have a large stock " keeping," will swallow up the whole of a week's profits, if not more. Nor is there any reason to suppose that butchers make fortunes more rapidly or more commonly than other tradesmen. Probably, allowing for the excess which some customers are willing to pay for fashion, for name, for a supposed certainty of always getting the best article, and for credit, the butchers' prices do not allow an excessively large margin for profit. Their chief fault is one which they share with the majority of retailers,—their uuwillinguess to share with the ready-money customer the profits of prompt payment. The only hope of a change favourable to the consumer, in the face of a demand daily increasing and not likely to meet with any but a temporary check, lies in increasing or developing the sources of supply. The Continent already furnishes a great part of our consumption. Many a sturdy Briton, strongly entrenched in the belief that nothing in creation, from man downwards, is really good unless it be of English birth and rearing, would be astonished to learn the outlandish parentage of much of the prime meat with whose merits he has been crediting the Highlands or South Downs. But no new discoveries are possible in this direction. Really cheap meat will not be found anywhere in Europe. If it is to come at all, it will come frail* the Antipodes or from South America. Indeed, we may say that it has come. Australian beef and mutton may be bought, if we take into consideration the weight of bone and the waste of cooking, for not more than three-fourths of the price of butchers' meat. And if the writer may state his own experience, they are about as good as the average of Eng- lish and Continental produce. The beef indeed is inferior, for beef is the result of an advanced civilization, which alone can furnish the highly cultivated pastures which the ox requires. But the mutton, the sheep thriving best on the pastures of nature, is excellent, far bettor—it comes over ready cooked—than the ordinary cold mut- ton of domestic life. Great prejudices, however, have to be over- come before the supplies furnished from this source will come into general use. The writer has never seen an educated person who did not approve of this meat on experiment, but no servant in his household will touch it. " They do not know," they say, after the manner of their kind, " how it has been killed."

But, whatever happens to prices, about which indeed one feels inclined to despair, something may certainly be done to improve the condition and quality of the meat which is brought to the markets of London and the great cities,—consumers, it must be remem- bered, of a quantity of meat more than proportionate to their numbers. Our readers will remember the animated discussion which took place not long ago about the methods of carrying cattle, methods which were accused—not, as it seemed, without reason—of cruelty, in that they allowed the animals to remain without food or water for four-and-twenty, or even six-and-thirty hours. They may also remember that experts differed in opinion on the important question,—whether or no an ox would eat and drink on a journey. That some oxen did so was, if we remember right, proved to demonstration, but many would probably refuse. These cannot fail to suffer much in condition, —more, one would think, considering how continually the ox is employed in either chewing or masticating his food, than would a man under similar circumstances. And, on the other hand, all arrangements for supplying food, supposing the reluctance of the animal to be overcome, would require, at least, more constant attention during the journey, and would thus increase the cost of carriage. The remedy for these evils, a remedy which is already in extensive operation, is found in supplying the markets with dead meat. The plan seems to unite almost every advantage. The city would be delivered from that hideous and offensive apparatus of slaughter-houses, bone-houses, and the like,

* Cariaitto of Toll. By Dr. Wynter. Two vole London : Chapman and Hall. 1870.

which is now necessary for its meat supply, a nuisance which we are continually banishing to more and more remote districts, not without considerable inconvenience, but which, as our borders are enlarged, still continues to annoy us. The meat would be better, as the animal's flesh would no longer lose its fine condition by prolonged thirst and hunger, or be bruised by the sticks of brutal drovers. At the same time, the cost of carriage would be diminished, the live animal taking up the room of more than one of his dead brethren. There are seasons of the year, however, when the supply from the more remote districts would have to be suspended, at least, till science shall discover a ready method of preventing decay without injuring flavour. And there is, as Dr. Wynter, to whose interesting paper we would refer our readers, suggests, another and more serious objection, in the fact that this method of transport would cause a great loss to a class which can ill afford it. The " oddments " of the animal, the heart, liver, lights, &c., would hardly pay for the cost of carriage, and these constitute a very considerable portion of the flesh food of the poorer classes. It is conceivable that the difficulty might be overcome ; possibly the transport of these parts might be made remunerative, though, as a matter of fact, they are not brought up with the " dead meat" to the London markets; but one cannot help suspecting that this is another proof of that tendency of civilization to depress the condition of the lowest class, which it tasks all our wisdom and philanthropy to counteract. Among the results of this civilization are enormous aggregations of men, of which the lowest class exists in a chronic poverty, which too often lapses into misery. It would be melancholy to think that changes which promote the refinement and well-being of the com- munity at large have, on the other side of their action, a tendency to exaggerate these evils.