276 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 



had elapsed between the killiug- of the animal and the eating of the 

 meat. It was very evident that the parasites were rapidly losing their 

 vitality and their power to produce disease. M. Colin thought this was 

 due to the effects of the slight salting, and M. Brouardel seemed will- 

 ing to admit this. 



If, then, so marked a result is produced in a single week by the slight 

 salting which this chopped meat received, it is very plain that the high 

 degree of salting to which our packed meats are subjected must be suf- 

 ficient in the vast majority of cases to completely destroy all trichinae 

 and to make the meats perfectly safe. The question cannot be nar- 

 rowed down for this reason to a comparison of the proportion of animals 

 affected with trichinsii in America and Europe, even if this were actually 

 determined, which is not the case, but it necessarily turns on the health- 

 fulness of the meats of these countries at the time when they are ottered 

 for consumption. And when the matter is viewed from this stand-point 

 the very great superiority of American salted meats over even the in- 

 spected German hogs is too apparent to be questioned by unbiased 

 scientific men. 



In the latest discussion on this subject in the Paris Academy of Medi- 

 cine M. Proust said : 



The question is not a deteruiiuatiou if American meats contain tricliiuie, but in 

 what condition these trichinie are found ; if they are alive or dead ; if they are inju- 

 rious or not ; in a word, if the consumption of American salted meats is dangerous or 

 not to the public health. 



In this connection I ask permission of the academy to read a passage from a most 

 interesting letter that I received this morning from Dr. Gibert, a health officer and 

 distinguished sanitarian of Havre : 



"In 1881," says M. Gibert, "American salted meats entered largely into the food 

 supply of the working class of Havre; but in regard to this it is important to divide 

 the consumers into two classes : 



"1. The people buying American salted meat for family consumption always cook- 

 ing it and never eating it raw. The inhabitants of the quarters of Eure and Saint 

 FrauQois nourished themselves exclusively with it. 



" 2. The workmen employed in handling the packages of salted meat, who during' 

 fifteen years continued to eat this meat raw. MM. Bouley and Chatiu could easily 

 have seen in their walks on the wharves of Havre workmen breakfasting on a piece 

 of bread and a slice of raw bacon, eating not only the fat but all parts of the meat. 

 Any one could repeatedly see these workmen day after day, even when at work, eat- 

 ing pieces of raw salt pork without fear. 



"It is certain, then, that at Havre, for more than fifteen years, hundreds of work- 

 men consumed salted meats trichinous as well as not trichinous, and never during 

 this long period of years has a single workman been incommoded by this food. 



" No physician in Havre has seen a disease resembling in the least the Ermsleben 

 disease described by MJkl. Brouardel and Grancher. Such an assertion demands some 

 proofs which^it is easy for me to give. 



" I would remark, in the first place, that if the meat consumed raw had aftected the 

 health of the workmen employed in such large numbers handling salted meats tha 

 directors would have soon discovered the vacancies in the ranks of the workers. After 

 an investigation carefully made by me, and which it is easy to make anew ofdcially, 

 it was found that never had there been a knowledge of such a fact in any of the large 

 importing houses of Havre. 



