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18
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF HYGIENE
AND DEMOGRAPHY.
At the Congress held in Brussels in September, 1903, your Medical Officer
of Health attended as the official delegate of the Corporation.
I here quote only those conclusions and resolutions agreed to by the Congress
which are of especial interest to your Worshipful Committee.
(1) That human tuberculosis is mainly transmitted from man to man ;
nevertheless, in the present state of our knowledge, the Congress is of
opinion that it is advisable to prescribe measures against the possibility
of infection of man by animals.
( I have already directed attention to the value of this resolution and
its important bearing on the action of your officers in the Central Markets.)
(2) That meat is unfit for human consumption when it is derived
from animals attacked by the following diseases: bacterial anthrax;
glanders and farcy; rabies, and suspected rabies (in cases of bite from
mad animals the meat can be consumed after sterilization); tetanus;
septicemic gangrene; pyaemia; trichinosis; leprosy of the ox and pig
(leprous meat can be consumed after use of method ensuring the
destruction of the cysticerci); generalised actinomycosis; tuberculosis in
the following cases:—
(а) When the disease is generalised, whatever the condition of the
animal may be ;
(b) When the animal suffers from marked wasting, whatever the
extent of the lesions.
Meat seized for generalised tuberculosis may, when the animal is in
good condition, be used for food after sterilization ; the same will apply
in doubtful cases, regard being had to the extent of the lesions.
It will be necessary to proceed to total seizure of the visceral organs
when tuberculosis is demonstrated in one organ; typhoid fever of the
horse; acute enteritis with diarrhoea in the calf; gangrenous coryza in
cattle; cattle plague (flesh of a beast suffering from cattle plague can be
used for food when on post-mortem examination only very limited lesions
can be found); dropsy; psorospermosis; when the lesions are purulent or
calcareous; albuminuria with infiltration of the muscles; hydremia;
general melanosis; jaundice; uræmia; carcinoma; diseases rendering
the meat bloody, infiltrated or changed to any marked extent; poisoning
when the substance ingested can be harmful to the health of man.
The flesh of animals attacked by measles of the pig or contagious
pleuro-pneumonia of the ox can be eaten if it presents a normal
appearance.