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51
the presumption is warranted that the meat was odorous in the first
place, and was therefore drenched with the sulphurous acid solution,
and that the boric acid was subsequently added in the form of the
preservative powder so frequently employed in the routine of sausage
making.
Doubtless the flavouring agents which are added to certain
sausages also lend themselves to the disguising of unsavoury conditions
originally present in the meat. Then, as further circumstances
favouring dishonest and unwholesome manufacture, one may refer to
the facts that a sausage machine so finely divides the material that it
is impossible to judge of the original quality, or even nature, of the
various meats introduced, and all naked eye evidence of disease
conditions is lost.
The poorer people eat a great deal of sausage, for it is one of
the cheapest articles of food. Beef sausages are sometimes actually
sold at 3d. per pound, and rarely at more than 6d. When wholesome,
as they generally are, they are also a valuable article of food.
If it is necessary to use preservatives at all in the manufacture
of sausages, the drugging of the food should be performed
under proper advice and restrictions. Sausage makers are
at present advised and, indeed, pressed to use preservative powders
and solutions on the market by agents whose commercial interest it is
to foster the sale of these articles, and they are often used without any
discrimination by butchers who are not informed as to the minimum
quantities that will suffice. Hence one finds that where 5 to 10 grains to
the pound of boric acid would be sufficient to preserve fresh sausage
meat, even in the summer months, as much as 60 grains have been
added.
There are at present 26 sausage makers in the Borough, and the
meat used by them has been found to be wholesome on every occasion
of inspection during 1906, but seizures have been made in previous
years.