Report on trichinae and trichinosis / United States Marine Hospital Service ; prepared, under direction of the supervising Surgeon-General, by W.C.W. Glazier.

  • Marine Hospital Service
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on trichinae and trichinosis / United States Marine Hospital Service ; prepared, under direction of the supervising Surgeon-General, by W.C.W. Glazier. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    “Iii 1S50 the Austrian Government ordered that each community should build abattoirs, and since that time in nearly all ot the largejxnd middling-sized cities such buildings have been erected. In is <2 a slaughter-house was built at Pesth, which is the best one on the conti- neut. , tt South Germany also excels in the number and completeness ot the arrangement of her slaughter-houses. The arrangements of the meat markets in Baden and Bavaria are considered the best. In North Ger- many, on the contrary, these establishments are very much neglected. They exist only in Hamburg, Bostock, Giistrow, and Wismar, but under deficient control. h In Hanover the necessity for an abattoir became urgent more than ten years ago, but against the strenuous opposition of the corporate butchers, the medical society, the often-appointed commissioners, the indefatigable exertions of the medical counselor Dr. Braudes, even with the knowledge that there were 300 stricken men and women and 40 corpses, have not succeeded in attaining this end. In Magdeburg the same opposition occurs. But in Berlin the best example ot the ob- 1 stinacy of butchers is shown. Under the patronage of Stromberg a company has built a large slaughter-house, with stables attached, at an expense of about 1,000,000 thalers ($400,000), but only a few of the 780 butchers have availed themselves of its privileges. By this is proven that nothing can be expected from the free will of the butchers; that without compulsory laws nothing can be done, for they seek and find profit in that on which the necessity of a strenuous control is founded. “A laudable exception is the corporate Butchers’ Association of Dres- den, which built an excellent abattoir in 1872. “THE necessity and usefulness of public abattoirs. “ The necessity can no longer be disputed. This arises first from the possibility of infection of meat used for human food; and, secondly, the butchers have not the necessary knowledge, and much less the good-will, to consider the health of the people against a possible increase of profits. Butchers as a rule do not believe in the danger from diseased meats. They do not wish to believe it, and therefore cannot be convinced of what is so clear to us concerning trichime. In spite of direct proof-—the many sick and dead—they for the most part persevere in their opposi- ! tion without scruple. “ The necessity has become greater of late on account of the abolition of the butchers’ tax, which, as it was levied per capita on the species and was not affected by the weight and discriminated only between calves and full-grown cattle, caused the butchers to look out for the ] heavy weights, as light lean cattle thus paid a higher tariff per pound. But now this restriction has disappeared with the duty which thus pre- j vented the slaughter of sick, lean cattle. The compulsory slaughtering in public abattoirs offers other advan-
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