Proceedings of the quarter-centennial celebration of the establishment of the Michigan State Board of Health : held at Detroit, Michigan, August 9, 1898.

Michigan. State Board of Health

Date:: 1898

Credit: Proceedings of the quarter-centennial celebration of the establishment of the Michigan State Board of Health : held at Detroit, Michigan, August 9, 1898. 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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$sliould iiuliuh* jdivsiciil exaiiiin;i<ion of llu* lioi'ds and the nse of Inhcr- ciilino test, toj^etlnn' with consid(*ralion of all sanitary features hearirifr upon the animals and protection of milk. Jtnildiiif^s should 1)(> adapted to tin* business, the employee's free front disease; care of animals, food, water, (hdails of ch*anliness, transporta- tion features, and in fact all proea'dnres, should be scrutinized and main- tained lip to a hij^h standai'd of sanatory excellence, 3. No beast slionld be used for food without sat isfactory evidence of its being' free from dis(»ast‘. Jn cities, the public abbatoir system slionld jn-e- vail. The advantages of this are well known. It diri'cls and concenti-ates the slaughter industry, iiermits inspection of all animals before killing and of tlu' carcass and viscera after, and practically can be made to preclude the possibility of the consumption of unlit meat. Of the transmission of Inbercnlosis by meat or tin' d(*gree to which thn llesh of tnb(*rcular catthf is lit for use there is some honest dill’erence of opinion. There can lx* no ipiestion, however, that when the infection is more or less general and tlie animal in jioor condition that such meat should be interdicted. Literature pertaining to sanatory matters and particularly in the premises under considei'ation, should be freely extended until those to whom directed can know that sanatory excellence is to their highest advantage and interest. With exclusion from without and extermination within, with a stand- ard of sanatoi-y (‘xcellence, mandatory, and all that it implies, one pro- lilii; source of infection is within reach of State action. In the absence of such a jirotection as outlined and of jurisdiction, the Dejiartment of Health of JtntTalo, has adopted, under my direction, a scrutiny, inconi])lete as it may be, which brielly is as follows: A record is kept of the conditions that jirevail at each dairy snjiply- ing the city with milk. This infonnation is obtained solely by impiiry but has been found generally reliable. It includes data of tin' size, health, tuberculine examination of the herds, character of the water, food, health of employes, methods of milk- ing, cooling, cleansing, trans])ortation, in fact, all factors bearing njion the ])nrity and jirotection of the milk. Additionally, circulars are caused to be s<*nt, bearing upon the possi- bilities, etc., of the business. >\'hen conditions at the dairy ai»pear ])rejndicial to the iniblic health,, from any cause, investigation is made and correction riMpiested. In the absence of authority beyond the municipal limits, when action for any cansi* apjiears necessary for nnsanatory reasons, for failnn* to comply with the 1 )(“])artment’s reipn'st, the jirodnct of such dairy is inter- dicted at the city line and the dealer to wliom consigned notilied, until such time as the offense is rmnoved. \Vilh this mode of ])rocedure and its results, any city can exercisi* a large influence upon dairies su])]»lying it, exclude milk from known tuber- cular heiils, and obtain sanatoi-y pimtection beyond its own field of au- thority. With brief reference to this i*ecognized source of tubercular infection and tin' outline of action towards its destruction, the more difticnll and$