should be _perfectly healthy_ at the time of its slaughter. However
slight the disease in an animal may be, inferiority in the quality of
its flesh, as food, is certain to be produced. In most cases, indeed, as
the flesh of diseased animals has a tendency to very rapid putrefaction,
it becomes not only unwholesome, but absolutely poisonous, on account of
the absorption of the _virus_ of the unsound meat into the systems of
those who partake of it. The external indications of good and bad meat
will be described under its own particular head, but we may here premise
that the layer of all wholesome meat, when freshly killed, adheres
firmly to the bone.