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The principal recommendations of this second Commission are shown in the Committee's report
now before the Council. It will suffice here to indicate the administration which would be required in
London to give effect to these recommendations.
Milk.
The subject of milk may be most conveniently discussed first, because not a single objection to
the recommendations relating to milk has been brought to the knowledge of the Committee.
The extreme danger to the milk consumer of tuberculous milk is insisted upon throughout the
report of the first Commission : thus a statement of Dr. Martin, who was employed by the Commission
in experimental inquiry, is quoted, "the milk of cows with tuberculosis of the udder possesses
a virulence which can only be described as extraordinary." It is not, fortunately, the fact that the
milk ot every cow having tuberculous disease of other parts than the udder is virulent. Indeed the
Commission state " according to our experience, then, the condition required for ensuring to the
milk of tuberculous cows the ability to produce tuberculosis in the consumers of their milk, is tuberculous
disease of the cow affecting the udder. It should be noted that this affection of the udder is
not peculiar to tuberculosis in an advanced stage, but may be found also in mild cases." The
Commission, however, later state, "the withdrawal from dairies of every cow that had any disease
whatever of the udder would form some approach to security against the serious danger incurred by
man from the use of tuberculous milk, but it would not be an adequate security. The presence in the
dairy of a tuberculous cow, as Drs. Martin and Woodhead have shown, is a decided source of danger to
the public, especially having regard to what we have learnt respecting the rapid development
of tuberculosis in the udder, and the degree of danger to milk consumers incurred by the invasion of
the udder in tuberculous cows."
To give effect in London to the recommendations of the second Commission, which are to guard
the milk consumer from the risks pointed out by the first Commission, the following administration is
necessary.
The owners of cows in London will be required to notify to the Council every case of disease of
the udder. The Council will employ a veterinary inspector, who will examine such cows with a view to
determining the nature of the disease, and if this be found to be tuberculous the cows will be
slaughtered. Periodical inspection of cows in cowsheds will be needed with a view to enforcing the
requirement of notification, and with a view to the Council requiring the slaughter of all cows
affected with tuberculosis of the udder or exhibiting clinical symptoms of tuberculosis. If, when the
animal is slaughtered, it is found that there has been error in diagnosis, the Council will compensate
the owner of the cow.
Samples of milk, either produced in London, or coming from without and sold in London, will
be taken, and milk vendors will be required to supply sufficient information as to the sources from
which the milk is derived. If such milk is found to be tuberculous the Council will require from the local
authority in whose district the cows are situated "full information and veterinary reports concerning the
cows, byres, &c.," and if dissatisfied with the report will, with the sanction of the Local Government
Board, make an independent inspection of such cows. For the purposes of this administration the
Council will require the aid of a laboratory in which the milk can be examined.
Similar action will of course be taken by other authorities outside London, and hence the sale
of tuberculous milk will be limited.
As I have already said, there is no opposition to the Committee's recommendations on this head,
and it is earnestly to be desired, in the interest of the public health, that these recommendations will
be adopted by the Council.
Meat.
I now come to the subject of meat inspection. It cannot be said that there is no opposition to
the recommendations of the Committee here, for although the necessity of meat inspection was
recognised by the several gentlemen who addressed the Committee, they all objected on various
grounds to the slaughter of animals in public slaughterhouses, in which alone meat can be properly
and systematically inspected, and claimed that private slaughterhouses should continue to exist.
It must be pointed out in the first instance that the need for more thorough and systematic
inspection of meat in London and the country generally does not depend only upon the necessity of
preventing the sale of tuberculous meat. Meat may be unfit for human food and dangerous to human
health from many causes, and this has been so much recognised on the continent that before there
was any knowledge that tuberculous food could cause tuberculosis in man, provision was made for the
slaughter of animals in public slaughterhouses. I mention this because among the reasons urged for
the retention of private slaughterhouses was the statement that the opinion as to the amount of risk from
tuberculous meat had been greatly exaggerated and that this risk is insignificant. Upon this it is
sufficient to point to the fact that the last Royal Commission on Tuberculosis has recommended the
abolition of private slaughterhouses, and the slaughter of animals in public slaughterhouses, on the sole
ground of the risk of the consumption of tuberculous meat. The first Commission showed this
risk, pointed out that the meat might easily be contaminated at the time of slaughter with
material derived from other diseased parts, and, as the result of experiment, showed also that while
"ordinary processes of cooking applied to meat which has got contaminated on the surface are probably
"sufficient to destroy the harmful qualities, they would not avail to render wholesome any piece of meat
"that contained tuberculous matter in its deeper parts."
The especial danger of the use of raw meat juice by delicate children is pointed to by the
Commission.
It is pointed out by the deputations that the last Commission showed that with increasing
consumption of meat there is decreasing mortality from tuberculous disease at the meat-eating ages, and
there was apparently forgetfulness by the speakers of the fact that this decrease is due to amelioration
of conditions, which in combination have a more potent influence on the production of tuberculosis
than meat has. While admitting that the views as to risk were some years ago exaggerated by some
persons, there still remains, I submit, a substantial risk to the meat consumer from tuberculous meat,