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76
The table on pages 74 and 75 shows that the proportion of inspections to premises differs considerably
in the several districts. In some districts the inspections number several times the number
of premises, in others less. Dr. Brown, the medical officer of health of Bermondsey, again calls attention
to the need for the appointment of a female inspector in this district for the purposes of this Act.
The Inspection of Food.
A report by Dr. G. S. Buchanan to the Local Government Board on administration in London
with regard to meat of pigs affected by tuberculosis, shows the need of comprehensive rearrangement
of the work of inspection for the purpose of safeguarding consumers against such risks as attach to the
consumption of tuberculous meat. After discussing the administration of foreign countries from
which the meat of pigs is exported to this country, the examination of the carcases of animals in the Central
Market,in the Islington Market and in private slaughterhouses and in butcher's shops, Dr. Buchanan says
that the earlier parts of his report, in which these administrations are described, " indicate, as regards
London, incompleteness and lack of uniformity in measures adopted by public authorities to control
or prevent the importation, sale, or use for manufacture, of meat of tuberculous pigs." He is of opinion
that there would be "many advantages in extending the system adopted in Dutch and Danish
slaughterhouses of attesting the fact that a given carcase, together with its viscera, has passed official
inspection. The official labels which at present are attached to these carcases might usefully be supplemented
by stamping or branding the carcase in several places with an appropriate mark," and he
adds " Similar marking and labelling could, I imagine, be easily undertaken in the case of pigs
slaughtered under official inspection at Islington when new slaughterhouse arrangements are made."
He adds, " I do not think there is any reason to apprehend that marking the carcase (an
every day practice on the Continent) will in any way prejudice its sale to the public, and it seems
probable that retail butchers and other buyers will appreciate the security afforded by the mark. This
has certainly been the case with the labels attached to the officially inspected carcases imported from
Holland. The danger appears to me to be rather the other way, that unequal treatment may be accorded
to the home producer who cannot profitably send his pigs alive to Islington and is obliged to slaughter
in private slaughterhouses. In the absence of care or knowledge on the part of men who slaughter
or dress the carcase—and many of them are altogether ignorant of the significance of tuberculous
lesions —and being without the advantage of official inspection, he may send carcases of tuberculous
animals to London with the result that (under the system of marking), they are specially looked over
and tuberculosis is discovered. In such cases he would not only lose the value of the carcases, but
would be at a disadvantage, when compared with the foreign importer, in consequence of the risk
of prosecution which he would incur."
The view that buyers will learn to value the security of inspection which the stamp indicates
is, I believe, well founded, and there is every expectation that the purchaser will become accustomed
to look for the stamp, and that English produce which cannot thus claim to have been inspected will
be regarded and, provided the foreign inspection is efficient, deservedly regarded as less free from risk
to the consumer than that which has been inspected abroad.* It is, therefore, not matter for surprise
that the Danish Government has made an order which will provide for the marking of bacon of
Danish manufacture, as will be seen from the following statement I have just received from the
Commissioner to that Government—
A Danish law, of 30th March, 1906, which cainc into forcc on the 3rd October, provides for the marking of bacon
of Banish manufacture intended for export from Denmark. A royal decree of 30th August orders, in section 3, that
all Danish lightly salted bacon exported from Denmark shall bear a mark like this
[Mark here indicated.]
The mark shall be applied to each half carcase on no more than three places according to directions to be issued by the
Minister of Agriculture. A Ministerial Order of 1st September directs every exporter of bacon of Danish origin to apply
to the Minister of Agriculture, who will cause the veterinary inspectors appointed under the law of 24th April, 1903,
and Ministerial Order of 18th February, 1905, to be supplied with the necessary stamp for applying the mark ordered
by the Royal decree. The inspector is responsible for the use of the stamp, which must not be delivered or lent to
others, and which must only be applied to carcases which the inspector has passed for export according to the instructions
given him.
Another Ministerial Order of 22nd September cancels section 3 of Ministerial Order of 18th February, 1905,
concerning export of meat, as far as this refers to bacon. Bales of Danish bacon will not in future need to have a label
attached, signed by the veterinary inspector and sealed by a lead seal.
By instructions of 26th September to the veterinary inspectors, amending instructions of 18th February, 1905,
* The following Order dated January, 1905, has been issued by the Danish Minister of Agriculture :—
" Supplement to Instruction by the Minister of Agriculture of 15th August, 1903, to the veterinary inspectors
appointed to control the export of meat.
" As it has been brought to the notice of the Minister that carcases of pigs which have suffered from tuberculosis
even in a very minute degree, are condemned by English officers of health as unfit for human food, it shall, under
reference to Section 4 of the Instruction issued on August the 15th, 1903, from now henceforth be the duty
of the veterinary inspectors authorised to inspect meat for export to retain from export to Great Britain the
carcase of any pig examined according to the Order of August the 15th, 1903, in which, or in the organs of which, is
found the smallest deposit of a tuberculous nature.
" As the removal of any part of the serous membranes in several markets in England causes a suspicion that
the animal in question has suffered from tuberculosis, the veterinary inspector shall not pass for export to Great Britain
any carcase of an ox or pig examined according to the same Order from which any part of the pleura or peritoneum
has been removed.