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.
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![The Public Health Act, 1875, does not apply to the Administrative County of Provis, 13. London, and the provisions of the general law with regard to meat inspection are contained in the Public Health (London) Act, 1891. They are similar to those contained in sections 116 to 119 of the Act of 1875. In Ireland the law is practically identical with that in England, with certain Stafford, administrative differences. 2499- It is clear, however, both from witnesses and from the Parliamentary Return Parliamen- showing, for the years 1894 and 1895, the Number of Carcases seized by Medical Return» Officers of Health and Inspectors of Nuisances in England and Wales . . . . . • •4 5- and of the Number of such Carcases condemned by Justices, that the great majority of carcases are destroyed by voluntary arrangement between the medical officer of health or the inspector and the butcher, without the intervention of a justice. Thus, from the Return referred to, of 9,823 carcases seized for one or another cause in 1895 only 383 were condemned on the order of a justice. The medical officer of health of Birkenhead, for example, on finding a carcase Marsden, affected with disease obtains an order signed by the butcher authorising him to 2259- destroy the carcase, and only on his refusal to sign the order would the case be taken, into court. In other instances the butcher, when in doubt about a carcase, shows it to Cooper, the inspector in order to have the benefit of his opinion before exposing the meat 191°- for sale. In Scotland the Public Health Act, 1897, which only came into operation on 1st January 1898, contains some provisions similar to those in the English Act, and others again in which important differences are to be noted. In the first place, in addition to the medical officer or sanitary inspector, a AppendixK. 'c veterinary surgeon approved for the purposes of this section may act as meat P-385- inspector; and it is further provided that in the case of any proceeding under this section with regard, to a living animal the medical officer or sanitary inspector, unless he is himself a qualified veterinary surgeon, shall be accompanied by a veterinary surgeon. Further, the Act provides that if the owner can prove that the animal or part thereof condemned was, within a reasonable time prior to the seizure, examined upon the premises where the animal was slaughtered, and passed by a veterinary surgeon called in for the purpose, and who shall have granted a certificate of passing he shall be exempt from penalty or imprisonment under this section for such offence. To facilitate the obtaining of such a certificate from a veterinary surgeon every local authority or two or more may, if they think fit, appoint a place and fix a time at which a veterinary surgeon shall attend for the purpose of examining any animal, alive or dead, and passing or condemning it in whole or in part. If the veterinary surgeon passes the animal a certificate setting forth such particulars as are necessary for its subsequent identification is to be given. 21. There is a total absence of uniformity in the special qualifications required of the persons employed as meat inspectors by the sanitary authorities in different places, Parliamen- as may be seen by a Return presented to the House of Commons in 1896, showing the tery Return, previous vocations of those acting in that capacity. In Battersea, for instance, four 74' plumbers and three carpenters discharge the office of meat inspector; in Hackney the duties have been committed to two plumbers, one carpenter, one compositor, one bricklayer, one florist, one builder, one surveyor, and one stonemason. In Portsmouth a solitary butcher nas received as colleagues three school teachers, one medical dispenser, one carpenter, and one tram-conductor. In Manchester the public slaughter-houses are under supervision of a veterinary Niven, 3662. surgeon ; in Glasgow inspection is carried out by the police, assisted by three butchers, Chalmers, and in Liverpool the staff of inspectors have been butchers by trade and training. 10]3 We may add that in the Edinburgh public slaughter-house we witnessed meat inspection carried on more nearly on the enlightened system of the best continental abattoirs than it was our fortune to see in any other part of the United Kingdom. Here there are six meat inspectors, of whom four are veterinary surgeons, one has been a butcher, and one a cattle salesman We were very favourably impressed with the prganisation, though the standard by which the meat of tuberculous carcases was judged appeared to us unnecessarily severe. In many districts meat inspection is made part of the duty of ordinary sanitary inspectors, without any special training.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21365076_0015.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
