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250
1910]
INSPECTION OF FOOD.
By far the greater part of this work devolves on Inspector Wilkinson,
the Inspector of Meat, who not only performs the special duty of examining
the carcases and joints of animals intended for human consumption, but
also inspects other foods such as fish, vegetables, etc., exposed for sale in the
shops, on the stalls in the market streets, and by costers. He also inspects
the slaughterhouses and cowhouses of the borough.
Unsound Food. Altogether 4 tons 1 cwt. 1 qr. and 25 lbs. of unsound
food was destroyed during the year, as compared with 2 tons 4 cwt.
3 qrs. 18 lbs. in 1909. Of the quantity destroyed 1 ton 18 cwt. 1 qr. and
14 lbs. was diseased or unsound meat, which had been removed chiefly from
slaughterhouses.
The principal fact to be noted about this large amount of unsound
food is that the livers of 387 sheep were found to be infested with " fluke."
This worm is usually found in the bile ducts of the liver of sheep and oxen
and occasionally in the bile ducts of the horse, and gives rise in sheep to a
disease known as "liver rot." It is also generally found to a much greater
extent in animals fed on damp and swampy lands, except on salt marshes. It is
more prevalent in wet seasons than in dry. Whalley, in his well-known book on
meat inspection, says of it that it is absolutely of no consequence to man,
seeing that if portions of a "fluke" infected liver were devoured by him,
no parasitic infection could possibly occur. Indirectly the disease is of
vast importance, not only on account of the great monetary loss which
it annually entails on the nation, but also from the immense and incalculable
diminution of our food supply which results from its ravages.
Inspection of Shops, Street Markets, Stalls, &c —As usual
these places were regularly inspected by the Food Inspector, and in addition
on Saturday nights by half the district inspectors in rotation.
11,280 visits were made by Inspector Wilkinson in addition to the inspections
made by the inspectors on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings.
Unsound Fish.—Altogether 1,195 lbs. weight of fish which had been
bougnt at Billingsgate Market was surrendered by 14 purveyors, the majority
of whom were costers. The fish had been bought at the market from sample,
but on the "trunks" being opened, it was found that the food was unsaleable.
It was, therefore, surrendered and afterwards taken either to the Council's
destructor or to Ashburton Grove Refuse Shoot and destroyed.