Fetal Livers

How succulent the flesh of unborn animals is, few civilized people know.* Civilized sentiment obscurely associated with motherhood generally forbids its eating. U. S. Government regulations have codified that sentiment by prohibiting the marketing of unborn cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses./- There is no medical reason and no stringent religious injunction against such eating. Scarcity of slaughterhouse fetuses, Dr. Elijah Joseph Gordon, slight, swarthy, witty Professor of Medicine at Ohio State University, admitted last week, handicapped him in effecting the experimental cure of two anemia cases this year.** Ordinary liver has become remedy of choice for the anemias (TIME, Oct. 21). Hog stomachs are being tested. Neither of these affected Professor Gordon's cases. An ingenious ratiocinator, he figured that the younger liver was, the greater might be its power of stimulating blood formation. His persuasiveness induced the Government's meat inspectors to release him sufficient fetal livers for his purpose. The remedy apparently has proved successful. Dr. Gordon's success gained the Department of Agriculture's cachet last week. Rice Price Steddom. chief of the Federal Meat Inspection Service, offered to release to reputable physicians, medical institutions and pharmaceutical manufacturers all possible fetal livers which reach slaughter. But the rest of the unborn carcasses may not be marketed.

*Unborn lamb, spitted and braised over an open fire, is a nomadic delicacy, called by Russians Shashlik, by Armenians Shlsh-Kebab. The dish served openly by U. S. Russian and Armenian restaurateurs is of lamb several days old, comparatively tough chewing. /-When the prices of beef, pork, and lamb become high, as during and immediately following the War, the U. S. begins to eat horse meat. Last year more than 100,000 U. S. horses were slaughtered, chiefly for the export market. **Associated in the research were Solomon Augustus Hatfield, Assistant Professor of Medicine, and George Irving Nelson, researcher.

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