Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the administrative procedures for controlling danger to man through the use as food of the meat and milk of tuberculous animals.
- Great Britain. Royal Commission on Tuberculosis
- Date:
- 1898
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the administrative procedures for controlling danger to man through the use as food of the meat and milk of tuberculous animals. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
125/502 (page 85)
![1875. When you say, therefore, that there are certain cases where animals exhibit no indictions of tuberculosis during life, you mean that those are cases in which there has been no examination made by a competent man ?—That is so.- 1876. And it is probable, at any rate you would say, that if an examination had been made by a competent man that animal would not have been looked upon as a sound one, and if sent to a slaughter- house would have been sent by him with a suspicion of tuberculosis ?—Yes, but I take it, it would be extremely difficult to diagnose tuberculosis in many animals that I have killed, because it was so slight. 1877. What do you mean by slight? — Just slightly graped on, perhaps, one side. 1878. With no disease in the lungs ?—No disease in the lungs, and no attachment of the lung to the walls of the chest. 1879. No tubercle in the substance of the lung ?— No tubercle in the lung itself. 1880. But those are not common cases, are they ?— No. 1881. In the majority of eases where you get that large deposit of grapey material, is there not also disease of the organ on which the deposit occurs ?— Yes. ] 882. So that if it were the custom to examine the animal carefully, it would not be the complaint, as it is now, that animals which exhibit no symptom during life are, nevertheless, found to be extensively diseased after death ?—Yes, that would be so. 1883. (Mr. Cooke-Trench.) How does a veterinary surgeon judge whether a horse is sound in the lungs— by galloping him ?—I do not know; I am not a veterinary surgeon. 1884. (Mr. Speir.) In answer to Mr. Cooke- Trench, I think it was, with regard to who had charge of certain animals which are presently killed The witnc under the Pleuro-pncumonia Act, you made reference Mr. to the County Council as likely to have charge of Oayum. them. I think you were under a misconception ?—I j!7~l<597 said either the County Council or the Board of ' Agriculture. I was not sure whether it was the Board of Agriculture or not. 1885. At one time it used to be the County Council, but for some years the Board of Agriculture have had that entirely in their own hands. Then, again, in connexion with this public slaughter-house business, would a public slaughter-house have any tendency to cause the introduction of, say, the carcase trade into London ?—Of enlarging the number of centres where meat was dealt with in a wholesale fashion ? 1886. I might put it in this way : Would that help to encourage the foreign meat trade as against the home meat trade ?—Well, I think it would. 1887. What is your opinion with regard to that ?— I think it would have that effect. 1888. Then there is another way of looking at it : Presuming that public slaughter-houses were erected, not only here, but in the provinces, would the tendency probably not be that English meat would be produced in greater quantity — killed in the provinces, and sent here ?—Yes, I think very likelv it would have that effect in the provinces. 1889. And therefore the introduction of public slaughter-houses would be a benefit to our own farmers, and no great disadvantage to the trade ; that is, to the little traders you have referred to already ?—■ No, I do not think it would. 1890. (Chairman.) I think your attention has probably been called to an answer given by Mr. Field to question 435 ; but perhaps you would look at it now (handing print of evidence to the witness) ?— (After reading the answer.) That confirms what I have said. s withdrew. Mr. William Coope 1891. (Chairman.) You are chairman of the Meat and Cattle Section of the London Chamber of Commerce, I believe ?—Yes. 1892. You are also a member of the council ?—I am also a member of the council of the same. 1893. And you are a member of the Common Council, and a member of the Cattle Markets Committee of the Corporation of the City of London ? —That is so. 1894. You are also president of the London Central Markets Tenants' Association ?—That is so. 1895. What is the character of that association ?— It is an association amongst the market salesmen who are tenants of the Corporation, and I am their president. It numbers, I think, about 160—all the principal men engaged in the wholesale trade of London. 1896. You are also a tenant-farmer of Chapelton Methlick, in Aberdeenshire? — Yes, I have been a farmer there for something like 25 years. 1897. And you are engaged in the Scotch meat trade ?—Yes, 1 have been engaged in the Scotch meat trade for over 30 years—the dead meat trade, of course. 1898. May I ask in which of your many qualifica- tions you come here to-day ?—Whichever will be of service to you. Any information I can give you on any head or subject, anything that I know, I shall be very pleased indeed to give to the Commission. But I appear particularly at the request of the Meat and Cattle Trade Section of the London Chamber of Commerce. 1899. Have you any general views to state on the question before the Commission ?—Nothing beyond what I have given you the outline of. At the outset of that I express my general agreement with the opinion expressed by the Royal Commission of 1894, called and examined. Mr. W. Cooper. on page 12 of their Report, dated 10th April 1S95, which is as follows : We regard it then as established that any person who takes tuberculous matter into the. body as food incurs the risk of acquiring tuber- culous disease, and we know that this matter may be found in parts of animals affected by the disease. While, however, expressing this general concurrence, I am of opinion that in the course of the present inquiry it should be ascertained and recorded at what stage of the disease the flesh of the animal becomes impregnated and dangerous. 1900. Have you known many instances of the flesh of a carcase being impregnated with tubercles ?—Yes. I had on my own premises a few months ago the carcase of an ox which was consigned to me from a village about 16 miles north of Aberdeen. When I saw the carcase in the morning, I thought to myself that it was a tuberculous carcase, but it did not show- symptoms of adhesion to the lungs, nor in the other parts of the region thereby. It did not just at first sight appear as if it had been very bad, but it looked as if it were bordering on the first stage of emaciation, that is to say, as you looked at the carcase you could see that the bloom had gone off the bullock. I allowed it to remain there, and I would not think of disposing of it till such time as I had seen the inspector. I called the inspector, who was the head iuspector, Mr. Territt, and I said to him that I had a carcase there that I should like him to look at. He had a, look at it, and he said : I do not see, Mr. Cooper, what we can do with that. It looks all right/' In fact, I think, if one had not minutely examined the carcase, one would not have suspected il ; for all the external portion, the outside of the carcase, looked very well indeed. I said I did not like the look of it at all. He said, I think there is something here, let me have a knife. I gave him a knife, and he cut](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21365076_0125.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
