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75
The slaughterhouses were cleansed and lime-washed each quarter
as required by the By-laws, and all bones kept in a satisfactory manner,
the quality of meat killed being good.
During the year humane slaughtering was introduced into the two
slaughterhouses. This new method of slaughtering has proved highly
satisfactory.
Your obedient Servant,
J. V. Snowdon.
A number of samples of salmon and shrimp paste, sausages, etc.,
were examined for preservatives. It is curious to note the attitude
which different firms take when informed that preservative has been
found in their wares. One firm sent their chemist to see me to justify
the addition of preservatives ! !! Their chemist, mark you. So food
is evidently manipulated by the scientists. Another firm sent a
director to explain that his firm were totally unaware that the food had
been so treated, and he submitted correspondence showing that the
food in question had been withdrawn from their many branches. He
also submitted a letter to the wholesalers asking them to instruct their
salesmen not to call. One hopes that the ordinary man in the street
will get a square deal and that the new Public Health draft Regulations
will become law. If a navvy wants boracic acid let him go into a
druggist's and buy his poison ; at present he cannot look a sausage in
the face without wondering whether it has been through the laboratories,
gathering dope by the way.
Encephalitis Letliargica, though not really a new disease, has
lately received close attemion by medical experts. Probably it is a
sequel to toxins elaborated during an attack of influenza. There are
numerous symptoms, such as drowsiness, headache, dizziness, squint,
(oscillation of eyeballs), deafness, twitchings of limbs, temperature,
etc. In different cases the symptoms vary in number and kind.
While some cases end fatally, chief attention is being focussed on
the unfortunate final results noticed in some.
It should be understood that the following two cases are exceptional;
the fact of their occurrence, however, necessitates following up, in
every case, no matter how mild the original attack may have been.
Case 1. A girl of 15, after an attack of acute chorea, developed
sleepiness, even at meals, and from being of a placid disposition