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67
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.

Inspection of food.
Nearly all the reports have accounts of the seizure or surrender of unsound food. Dr. Collingridge
states that the inspectors of the City Corporation seized nearly 2,240 tons of diseased, unsound
and unwholesome meat, poultry, offal and fish during the year, including 23½ tons of meat found to be
tuberculous. At Billingsgate Market, fish to the amount of 1,835½ tons was condemned by the inspectors
of the Fishmongers' Company. As the result of inspection at the City wharves, 166 loads of unsound
food were removed, the greater portion being voluntarily surrendered by the owners. In Bermondsey,
it was found necessary to destroy nearly 200 tons of food at the wharves and a much larger quantity
than this, chiefly grain, was disposed of for purposes other than human consumption. From other
premises within the borough miscellaneous food to the extent of over 27½ tons was conveyed and
destroyed as trade refuse. Reference is made to the large proportion of complete pigs' carcases
arriving from Russia, which were found to show tuberculosis in the glands of the neck. The disease
would not have been detected if the carcases had been divided and wholly or partly cured. Pressure
was brought to bear upon the exporters, with beneficial result, so that later the seizures became much
fewer. In Finsbury, 48 tons of diseased meat and 165 tons of decomposed food were confiscated during
the year. Dr. A. E. Thomas states that the quantity of meat confiscated was much more than that
in any previous year, and suggests the hot weather and railway strikes as probable causes. Reference
is made to the importation into cold stores in Finsbury of Australian beef containing worm nests in the
parts adjacent to the stifle joint, 51.6 per cent. of the hind quarters were found to be so affected. In
Southwark 3½ tons of beef was destroyed for this cause. Dr. D. L. Thomas, of Stepney, also had
experience of this parasite, which has been described as occurring in Australian cattle, under the name
of Spiroptera reticulata. Early in January, 1911, 80 casks of about 3 cwt. each of salt beef were received
at one of the Stepney wharves. The casks contained briskets and flanks and as the result of a superficial
examination, 14 per cent. of the meat was found to be unfit for food. The attention of the owners was
directed to this condition, and it was suggested that the meat should be destroyed. The owners,
however, asked permission to re-ship the goods to Australia, in order that it might be converted into
manure, but the Stepney Public Health Committee, after consideration of all the facts, refused to grant
permission for this to be done, and ultimately the meat was destroyed. In Dr. Collingridge's report
there is also reference to this matter, but the chief veterinary inspector to the City Corporation points.
out that some little time was necessary to inaugurate a satisfactory system of inspection in a country
like Australia, and adds that improvement is shown in some of the latest consignments.
Unsound food to the amount of some 200 tons including the 80 casks of Australian beef, was
destroyed in Stepney. In Southwark, 196 tons were destroyed or otherwise disposed of, and of 43,353
samples of foodstuffs examined in the borough, 10,054 were found to be unsound. Dr. Lennane
mentions that in Battersea, during 1911, of 1,897 pigs slaughtered at one slaughterhouse, 7 carcases
and 79 heads showed evidence of tuberculosis and were surrendered and destroyed.
(а) Other than bakehouses, milkshops, slaughterhouses, and ice-cream premises. In some cases the figures
relate to restaurant-kitchens only.
(b) Including visits for the purpose of sampling under the Food and Drugs Act.