DISEASES OF SWIXE 549 



veterinary inspector of the Bureau, who palpates and, if necessary, 

 incises the submaxillary glands which have been exposed by the cut 

 just made by the butcher for removing the head. Should these glands 

 prove to be healthy, the hog is allowed to pass down to the rail unmo- 

 lested ; if on the other hand these glands are seen to be tuberculous 

 the animal is marked and is then run into a separate compartment 

 called the retaining room, without being eviscerated. Most of the 

 tuberculous animals are detected here at the header's bench, records 

 showing that 93.3 per cent of the tuberculous hogs support lesions 

 in the glands in the region of the throat. 



From the header's bench the hogs which have not been tagged 

 are sent along the rail to the gutter's bench, where another veterinary 

 inspector is stationed, whose duties consist in examining each hog, 

 giving special attention to the viscera. His search is not limited to 

 the detection of tuberculosis, but he must watch for any of the dis- 

 eases proscribed by the regulations of the Bureau. As there is a cer- 

 tain percentage of hogs that show tuberculosis in the visceral organs 

 without, giving any evidence of the same in the cervical glands, the 

 inspector at the gutter's bench is able to detect a number of tubercu- 

 lous subjects in addition to those already tagged by the veterinarian 

 at the header's table. In this case the inspector is guided by the ap- 

 pearance of the lesions in the liver, spleen, lungs, or visceral glands. 



Another inspector has recently been installed at the point on the 

 line where the carcasses are split, it having been found that occa- 

 sionally vertebral lesions and lesions of the serous membranes will 

 exist, even when the visceral organs are apparently normal. 



Returning to the hogs which were tagged by the inspector on the 

 heading bench, these are passed along to the retaining room, where 

 they are eviscerated by a separate lot of butchers, using separate 

 tools, under the supervision of a fourth veterinary inspector. By 

 this method the affected parts or tissues are prevented from coming 

 in contact with the healthy meats and are passed directly from the 

 retaining room to either the "condemned" room or to the offal tanks. 

 In the retaining room by this time there will be many hogs on the 

 rail that are only slightly affected with tuberculosis, and these are 

 now beheaded, split, trimmed, and passed on to the cooling rooms. 



It is not a very difficult problem to pass judgment on the carcass 

 of a hog affected with tuberculosis when the lesions are slight on the 

 one hand, or when they are widespread on the other. Most sani- 

 tarians are agreed to pass the former class for food, after removing 

 the diseased parts, and to condemn the latter class. In the great ma- 

 jority of hogs retained by our inspectors the lesions are local, even 

 though one or more groups of organs are affected. 



The principles governing such disposal of this class of carcasses 

 is that, there being no evidence that the tubercle bacilli have been 

 taken up from the portal of entry to the body by the blood vessels, 

 there could have been no scattering of such organisms through the 

 muscular parts of the carcass, and these may therefore be eaten with 

 impunity. It is in cases of this class that danger from the develop- 

 ment of toxins has been suggested. This, however, has been dis- 



