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.
77/502 (page 37)
![605. Is that for dead meat only ?—For dead meat mly. Well, there is just one little limitation there ; lOmetimes you get live animals in Leadenhall Market, mt not in the way of meat supply. There is no live* itock market in the City of London. 606. How many private slaughter-houses are there n the City ?—About 14. 607. Does that include pig slaughtering ?—Yes, all ;he slaughtering is done at Aldgate. There used to le eight or nine more, which were all in Aldgate, and ;hey were destroyed by the District Metropolitan Circle Railway, so that at present we have 14. 608. And you have no cowsheds in the City ?— LSTone at the present moment. 609. The slaughter-houses are conducted under oyelaws ?—Yes, a copy of which I have given to the secretary, and which is now on the table. 610. What are your functions with regard to the exclusion of dead meat for sale ?—Primarily the meat is delivered soon after one o'clock in the morning; it takes time, of course, to unpack it, and the in- spectors are not required until 5 o'clock; but no meat 2sn go out of the market until it has been inspected; no meat can leave the market until alter 5 o'clock. Inspectors have the power of seeing every bit of meat that comes in, averaging in 1896 1,200 tons per day, but scarcely ever less than 1,000 tons per day. 611. And you have an adequate staff of inspectors? —I am obliged to say no. We have doubled the number lately, and we are getting the arrangements into better working order than before, but with such a bulk of meat it would take a very large staff to check carcase by carcase. 612. You state here that you have six ?--Yes, we used to have four, but one man was dismissed, or allowed to resign, who misconducted himself, and then in July last the number was made up at my representation to six. We are going to try that by giving them in turn certain duties to see how far it will work. 613. Do you find any difficulty in getting properly qualified inspectors ? — No, it is done by public advertisement, and we get an immense number of applications for even a single berth. These are eliminated by a sub-committee of the Sanitary Com- mittee, and then they are remitted to myself generally with the Chairman and Chief Clerk, in order that the applicants may be still further reduced. These candidates are generally reduced to about 12, and each of those 12 has to undergo an examination by myself in all the general characteristics in sound, unsound, and diseased meat [the distinction between unsound and diseased meat is that the unsound meat is putrid, from animals that have died from accident, and other causes, but not disease]. The great bulk of our seizures is from animals which are unsound or in a state of putrefaction. From my report the Com- mittee calls the 132 men before them, and three are selected for attendance before the general Court of Sewers, who select one of them. 614. What is the process in the treatment of condemned meat?—The moment the meat is seized it is taken to the condemned meat sheds, which are, roughly, about the size of this room. Each shed contains three slate tanks of a capacity of 600 gallons each, into which is made what we call, for want of a better name, a chemical bath. This chemical bath prevents further decomposition, and so disfigures and discolours it a3 to make it unfit for use for human food. It is subsequently shown to me, and in all disputed cases I order it to be taken to the magistrate at Guildhall who deals with it under the Act of Parliament, and it is reported to the Commis- sioners of Sewers. It is then taken back and put into the bath, and awaits the arrival of what we call the contractor for condemned meat, who lives some five miles off in the terrible district of Ham and Bow. The meat is conveyed to him in sealed carts, with patent locks, to which no one has access but the people in his own premises at Bow, and our men at the other end. He pays a certain amount—■ 2d. per stone of 8 lbs. to the Commissioners for all Dr. W- S. the meat condemned [600 tons in the year, speaking Saundirs. roughly], and this goes towards reimbursing the very ■ ' much larger cost of the inspectorial staff, the carriage, 2b * 0%' and wear and tear of horses, porterage, and other things which Ave do at our own cost. He does nothing but convert it into mammal products and meat-fibre, and bone-dust, and that sort of thing. 615. A point made yesterday by a witness was to the effect that it. was felt to be a hardship by the trade that no distinction was drawn between the surren- dered meat and seized meat ?—That is a fiction. It is surrendered in this way: an inspector goes into the stall or the meat salesman's shop, and when either of these see him they say. We want to show you something. But as a rule he does not go to the inspector and ask him to come and look over his shop, although they take a great deal of credit for that. In some cases where the thing is a nuisance they do come. But my senior inspector will tell you that it is a very rare thing. They take a great deal of credit for it, but it is all moonshine. These men do not call as much attention to it as they ought to do, and that necessitates the action of the inspector going into the shops and asking how things are. I have been with him many times and he says: I want to look at that, and it is taken and shown to him, and examined, and, if bad, put on one side till our porters who have charge of the business take it away out of the man's shop. As a rule they are glad to get rid of it. 616. The number seized in 1895 was very much in excess of those seized in 1894 by the Metropolitan Sanitary Authorities, although the number condemned was actually smaller ?—I only know about the City, ycu know, and the number of carcases seized I have got only in weight, unfortunately. The total supply for 1895 was 347,000 tons, of which 6C0 tons were seized. 617. Could you give any cause for the larger number of seizures and the smaller number of con- demnations ?—Yes. Again comes in the distinction between the unsound and the diseased meat. The failure of a very large consignment of New Zealand sheep, say 40,000 sheep, or a large consignment of Australian stuff, also arising from the refrigerating process breaking down, would very much increase our seizures, but we should not call that diseased but unsound meat. The distinction that should bs made between the unsound and diseased meat is an unknown quantity. This year we have taken very largely in excess of any previous year—over 10 per cent. 618. You do not apprehend the point. The point is that although the number of seizures was very much larger, being 6,000 in 1895 against 3,800 in 1894, the number of carcases condemned in 1895 was only 17 against 25 in 1894, which seems to point to greater vigilance or activity on the part of the inspectors ?—There is no doubt that that proportion will decrease with the number of inspectors, because in 1894 we were working with four, and now we are working with six, and of course, an addition of 50 per cent, like that would make a great addition to the inspectorial activity; and I think we have a better class of men than before. We have experienced men, some of them were inspectors before, and all having a good practical knowledge of butchering and slaughter- ing, and with some elementary knowledge of diseases of animals. 619. You have 17 condemnations out of 6,096 seizures; might that not be complained of by the trade as indicating rather vexatious action on the part of the inspectors; in fact it has been so complained of ?—You are reading those condemned by justices, and I should explain that the justices do not see all these 600 tons, but only such of them as are liable to prosecution. The butchers make no resistai.ca ; they are too glad to get rid of the meat in a state of putridity. We do not charge them witii a criminal offence, we simply confiscate their goods; and it is](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21365076_0077.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
