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239
[1905
to have his meat not only of good quality, but prepared and kept under good sanitary conditions,
yet fails to provide mechanical appliances for the purpose, probably owing to the
initial cost, or thinking that because he has done without them for so many years he can go
on as usual. *
Butchers' Shops, etc.—The butchers' shops, fish shops, and various places where foodstuffs
are sold 01 prepared for sale have received a total of 4,955 visits during the year, and the
inpections generally have been of a satisfactory character.
In some 24 instances butchers were cautioned for being in possession of food which
was unsound and unfit for human consumption, but only in one instance due to disease,
and this only to a very limited extent. I refer to the case where a half pig's
head and the corresponding portion of the reck was found, after being salted, exposed
for sale at a butcher's shop. As you will doubtless remember, steps were taken to
examine carefully the whole of the remaining parts of the same carcase, and I am pleased
to say the butcher rendered me every assistance in their identification. In the absence of
any further traces of disease, and the affection being therefore strictly localised, the diseased
parts were given up for destruction and the remainder of the carcase passed as fit for human
consumption.
Warnings were given also to six fruiterers, in two of which Inspectors Cook and Picknell
were instrumental in procuring the destruction of tomatoes and black currants respectively,
which were in an unsound condition.
A firm of provision dealers submitted some turkeys for examination, with the result that
six were condemned as unfit for human food on account of imperfect preservation in a cold
stores, whilst another firm of provision dealers sought advice about, and ultimately surrendered
for destruction, 65 turkeys which were unsound owing to similar circumstances.
A noted firm of meat preservers submitted a quantity of frozen Canadian ox tongues,
with the result that 39 were given up for destruction owing to decomposition having set up
during transit.
On two occasions during the year Mr. Robinson, Workhouse Master at Cornwallis Road,
invited my attention to the condition of the fish which had been supplied, with the result
that on one occasion a quarter of a cwt. was condemned as unfit for human food and destroyed
on the premises.
Only 3 summonses were taken out during the year under Section 47 of the Public Health
(London) Act. In the first instance a provision dealer had deposited in a prominent position
on a sideboard in the shop five fowls, which were found to be in a state of decomposition,
rendering them unfit for human consumption, and as they appeared to be deposited for the
purpose of sale, I seized them ; and they were afterwards condemned by a Justice of the
Peace, and a summons was subsequently taken out.
The defendant admitted their unsound condition, but declared that they were not intended
for sale, and produced witnesses to the satisfaction of the Magistrate to that effect, with the
result that the summons was dismissed, but without costs, the Magistrate agreeing that it
* Note by the Medical Officer of Health.— Even blowing meat by means of mechanical contrivances is radically
wrong. It hastens decomposition and injects into the meat air laden with bacteria, which may be of a pathogenic
character.—A. E.H.