Pleuro-pneumonia in cattle : extracts from various authorities as to the fitness of the flesh for food / Metropolitan Board of Works.

Metropolitan Board of Works

Date:: 1880

Credit: Pleuro-pneumonia in cattle : extracts from various authorities as to the fitness of the flesh for food / Metropolitan Board of Works. 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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$Ciroulars woro sent by the Public Health Committee to the 12 veterinarians who are known to be practising in Dublin and its suburbs. Six only repUed, namely, Messrs. Josephs, Palley, M'IConny, Allen, Mason, and Francis, all of whom cousidorod the flesh of pleuro-pnoumonio animals unfit for food in any stage of the disease. Medical Opinions in favour of using Pleuro-Pneumonic heef. Loiset, states (Eeynal's Traite de la Police Sanitaire, Paris, 1873), that during 19 years, 18,000 oxen, affected with pleuro-pneumonia, were killed and used as food in Lille, without apparently producing ill effects— that is, the 150,000 inhabitants of Lille used annually, nearly 1,000 carcases of plouro-pneumcnic beef, without apparent injury. No evidence is, however, given as to the continuous use of this diseased meat by any particular individual, or by any community; and no doubt, during 19 years, the l/SO.OOO inhabitants of Lille, suffered from anthraxes, boils, phlegmons, and diarrhoea, the cause of every case of which, or even of a small proportion of them, M. Loiset might have found it difficult to trace. Dr. Greenhow, in a Eeport addressed in lPo7 to tbe Board of Trade, states that he was not able to connect any case of disease with the use of the flesh of animals affected with pulmonary murrain. Some other writers have made similar observations. Staff-Surgeon Nicolson, and Assistant Surgeon French, assert that Kaffirs eat the flesh of animals of pleuro-pneumonia oxen without suffer- ing ill effects therefrom. Thirty medical men residing in or near Dublin, in replying to the circulars sent to them by the Public Health Committee, stated that the flesh of pleuro-pneumonic oxen might be used as food. Of these, throe (Drs. Colles, Wheeler and Battersby), stated that they had never known or hoard of cases of illness caused by its use. One doctor considered that unless the animal was killed within an hour after the appearance of the disease, the flesh was unwholesome. Dr. T. Collins believes that it might be used in the first stage, if well boiled. Dr. J. Eustace says it should only be used in the very first stage. Dr. Knipe, with thirty years' experience of the disease, considers the flesh is poisonous in the second stage. When pus is in the lungs, says Dr. Cloran, I knoio it is dangerous. Dr. M'Cieady asserts that it is unfit for use, except in a very early stage of the disease. In October, 1877, a report was prepared for the Cattle Trade Associa- tion of Ireland by Dr. E. Macnamara, Ex-President and Professor of Materia Medica, E.C.S.I; Dr. A. MacaUster, Professor of Zoology, T.C.D.; and Dr. J. E. Eoynolds, Professor of Chemistry, T.C.D. No new facts are given in this Eeport, but the reporters consider that the flesh of animals affected with pleuro-pneumonia may, in the early stages of the disease, be eaten with impunity. They do not, however, state at what pei'iod of the disease the animal's flesh becomes unwhole- some. They acknowledge that the flesh decomposes sooner than that of healthy animals. This Eeport called forth a rejoinder from the Dublin Sanitary Association. A Eeport was drawn up by Dr. T. Hayden, Vice- President of the College of Physicians, Dr. Grimshaw, Dr. J. W. Moore, Dr. Eeuben Harvey, and Dr. Woodhouse, and the Society's honorary Officers. This document, which is elaborate, concludes as follows:— \. That epidemic pleuro-pneumonig, is specific contagious fever g,n4$