View report page

90
and the suggestion was that it had been done for the purpose of removing evidence
of disease. Four carcases were alright, but in the remaining one the throat and
lumbar glands were extensively affected with tuberculosis. This pig was also seized
and condemned by the Magistrate at the Thames Police Court. The pigs had been
slaughtered in a village in Essex.
Mr. Frederick Thomson, of Bocking, was fined £15 15s. and £5 5s. costs for
depositing one of these diseased pigs for sale, and Mr. James John Nash, of Braintree,
was fined £42 and £10 10s. costs for depositing the other diseased pig for sale.
Mr. Nash had been previously fined £20 and £5 5s. costs for a similar offence in
February, 1910.
On Saturday, October 28th, the proprietor of the same butcher's shop in
Whitechapel High Street telephoned to the Public Health Office and asked that
someone should call at his place as he had put aside carcases of pigs which he
thought were diseased and unfit for human food. The throat glands of two pigs
were extensively affected with Tuberculosis, and the pigs were condemned by the
Magistrate at the Thames Police Court on the same afternoon.
The pigs belonged to Mr. James Parish, Coggeshall Hall, near Colchester, and
had been sent by him to be slaughtered by Mr. Frank Garrard, of Kelvedon. The
pigs were slaughtered by Mr. Gerrard at his own premises on October 26th and sent
to London on the afternoon of October 27th.
Mr. Parish was fined £10 10s. and £5 5s. costs for depositing the diseased pigs
for sale, and Mr. Frank Gerrard was fined £20 and £5 5s. costs for aiding and abetting.
In each instance the defendants stated in the witness-box that although they
had heard of tuberculosis, neither of them would be able to recognise meat affected
with that disease. They had no idea what a tuberculous gland would look like.
It must be admitted that these admissions give rise to feelings of disquiet and
even of alarm. If these admissions are honest, and I have no reason to doubt them,
there is disclosed a somewhat serious state of affairs.
The public naturally assume that these men are sufficiently acquainted with
any evidence which may be present of such a common disease as tuberculosis in
cattle, and have been led to rely upon the supposed knowledge of these men for
protection against the consumption of diseased meat.
Under present conditions it is obviously impossible to have every carcase
examined by officers of sanitary authorities, and considerable responsibility rests
on butchers and other purveyors of food.
In London the question is not a difficult one except from a monetary point of
view. The establishment of public abattoirs with clearing houses would ensure the