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101
the Royal Commission of 1898 for the guidance of Meat Inspectors were
framed with the main object of assisting this distinction, and so obviating
needless destruction of meat which may reasonably be regarded as
wholesome.
Since the inquiries of this Commission and its predecessor of 1895 a
considerable number of experiments on lower animals (by feeding and
inoculation) have been conducted at Continental slaughterhouses and
elsewhere (particularly in Germany) with the object of ascertaining the
infective ability under varying conditions of meat from tuberculous
animals. I have not had the opportunity of studying the accounts of
these experiments at first hand, but so far as I have been able to gather
from abstracts which I have seen (e.g., those given in Professor Ostertag's
work on "Meat Inspection") their effects as regards bovines is to add
to the evidence in favour of making a distinction, on practical and wellrecognised
lines, between parts of the carcass which are, and those which
are not, to be regarded as likely to contain tubercle bacilli.
When, however, the principle of separation of relatively safe from
relatively unsafe portions of the carcass comes to be applied to pigs, the
difficulty is greater, for the reasons (rapidity of local spread, frequency
of generalisation, uncertainty as to the existence of recent generalisation,
&c.) already indicated.
It was for these substantial reasons that the recommendations of the 1898
Commission to the Meat Inspector in the case of the pig was that "the
"presence of tubercular deposit in any degree should involve seizure of
"the whole carcass and of the organs." *
In Dr. Buchanan's general observations on the inquiry he remarks
(page 35)
"It would, of course, be another matter if it could be successfully
"maintained that there is practically no need for Public Health Authorities
"to give themselves any concern as to Tuberculosis in pigs. 1 do not
"think, however, that the evidence available (so far as I have been able
"to examine it) can be said in any way to warrant the assumption that the
"risk to man which arises from eating the meat of pigs which have been
"affected by Tuberculosis is negligible, no matter how severely or how
"recently these animals have been affected by the disease."
With regard to the position of the consumer, Dr. Buchanan says (page 12):—
"Before leaving the question of departing from the recommendation
"of the 1898 Commission, it is desirable, perhaps, to refer to what
* The italics are mine.—M. O. H.