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saleable either as food for man or for the lower animals, are sometimes used
for manurial and other purposes.
The slaughtering butcher commonly sells his offal to the tripe-dresser, and
tripe-dressers and some butchers not only sell food for man, but also food for
the domestic animals, especially cats.
When is an Inspector during slaughtering in a slaughter-house justified in
seizing a diseased organ that in trade terms belongs to the "offal"?
Prima facie the bovine is slaughtered for the food of man, and if the
slaughterer comes across a diseased organ it is open to him to at once ask the
Inspector to destroy it as trade refuse, confirming it by written request; and
the Inspector should always insist upon the request being put into writing or
signed for his own protection. If the slaughterer or butcher does not take
this course, or intimate to the Inspector that it is not intended for the food
of man, or cast it aside, the Inspector will seize it, and in order to justify
his seizure and protect himself, will take the organ to a magistrate, obtain a
condemnation order, and destroy it. Before a prosecution is commenced the
circumstances of the case must be very carefully considered, especially
whether the organ was intended for the food of man. The seizure of an
organ, discovered in slaughtering, and before the butcher has hung it up, or
cast it aside, or otherwise shown his intention, does not justify a prosecution.
So long as tripe-dressers and butchers, &c., kill and sell food for man and
for the lower animals in the same slaughterhouse on the same premises, and
even in the same shop, and a different standard is allowed to prevail for the
two classes of foods, so long will there be difficulty of proof.
Tuberculous Food.—The Royal Commission on Tuberculosis recommended in
their Report of 1898, under the head of Meat, C, Tuberculosis in Animals
intended for Food, paragraph 6, that the following principles should be
observed in the inspection of tuberculous carcases of cattle:
(a) When the lesions are confined to the lungs
and the thoracic lymphatic glands,
(b) When the lesions are confined to the liver,
(c) When the lesions are confined to the
pharyngeal lymphatic glands,
(d) When the lesions are confined to any combination
of the foregoing, but are collectively
small in extent,
I.
The carcase, if otherwise
healthy, shall
not be condemned,
but every part of it
containing tuberculous
lesions shall
be seized.
(a) When there is miliary tuberculosis of both
lungs,
(b) When tuberculous lesions are present on
the pleura and peritoneum.
(c) When tuberculous lesions are present in
the muscular system, or in the lymphatic
glands, embedded in or between the
muscles,
(d) When tuberculous lesions exist in any part
of an emaciated carcase,
II.
The entire carcase
and all the organs
may be seized.