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47
friends of the patient. I look upon this disinfection after
death from Phthisis as probably the most important
disinfecting work done during the year.
5. Protection of the Food Supply.—The supervision of meat and
milk, the two foods likely to convey tuberculosis, has been
as strictly enforced as possible.* There can be no doubt
at all that tuberculous meat and milk is not infrequently
placed upon the London market.† As regards the former
it will be understood that in retail shops it is a comparatively
rare thing to find tuberculous meat as it is well nigh
impossible to determine whether or not meat is tuberculous
when it is cut up in small joints, and glands and
membranes have been removed. Both in the living
animal and in the carcase the disease manifests itself in
theorgans, membranes andglands. It does not commonly
show itself in the meat substance. The latter may readily
become infected in the process of butchering and dressing,
for the same knife is used to remove the organs and offal
and to joint up the meat, and by this means the meat may
become smeared with tuberculous matter from the knife.
Moreover, it is quite possible to have localized tuberculosis
in certain organs only and not affecting the carcase as a
whole, and in such cases the entire carcase need not be
seized.
As from November 1900 the Extra-Corporation Meat Markets
came under our supervision it may be desirable to state that
the second Royal Commission on Tuberculosis (1898) laid down
the following principles for guidance as to seizure of tuberculous
meat:—
1. The entire carcase and all the organs may be seized :—
(a) When there is Miliary Tuberculosis of both lungs.
* Since January 1901 all the milk-shops in Finsbury have been registered by
the Borough Council, and will be periodically inspected by the Public Health
Department.
† The evidence for this statement appears in the frequent seizures of tuberculous
meat, and the special milk examinations which have been made from time
to time in London when tuberculous milk has been again and again detected.