Cohn, Jacob. The Royal Table - VWC: Faculty/Staff Web

BASES OF THE DIETARY LAWS 21
atrophied lobes, pus bags, abscesses, and many
other ill-
nesses. The viscera must not be punctured or abscessed.
The list of defects which make an animal trejah is rather
large seventy are given in the Code of Maimonides, and
more by the later authorities, who developed in detail the
general rules laid down by the earlier scholars. 27
It is an;
occurrence of exceeding rarity that an animal declared!*
kosher by the Jewish inspector should be condemned by
the government veterinarian; but much which passes the
medical inspector is in its turn declared trejah by the
Jewish authorities, which speaks well for the searching*
thoroughness of these laws.28
Even though Maimonides believes that "fat of the in-
testines makes us full, interrupts digestion, and produces
29
cold thick, blood," there are many who differ with him
on the medical basis of this proscription. A host of com-
mentators also consider blood "too gross" for good food.
While in the case of fat, some modern authorities will con-
firm the opinion of Maimonides that in a great many cases
over-indulgence in its use may be harmful, the prohibition
of blood seems in the opinion of many modern writers to
possess no hygienic significance. However, a hygienic reason
has been suggested: that the blood stream is the seat
of many microbes. Dr. Macht suggests that the reason
for the prohibition of blood is that it becomes putrid much
more rapidly than meat. He proved experimentally that
the cells of an artery could be made to respond to the
action of various drugs as long as 49 days after an animal
had been killed; but blood cells putrify much faster. 80
It
" Yad, Shechita, IX, Yoreh Deah, Hilchoth Terefoth.
38 I have no statistical study at hand, though such have been
made But any skochet or packing house Veterinary* will so testify.
39
Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed Eft, 48.
30 See the reports of Dr. David I. Macht in "Journal of Experi-
mental Therapeutics and Pharmacology" (igi4).