528 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



disease as being at its early stages a local disease, and its material as 

 being in the first instance limited to the neighborhood of the place at 

 which it had originally entered the body, is ready to formulate 

 certain precautions that could be taken for reducing to a minimum, 

 so far as present knowledge extends, the danger to human consumers 

 of meat by their partaking of tuberculous meat. He would advocate, 

 as a principle, that the operations of slaughter and dressing should be 

 done under skilled supervision, with the object of securing the 

 removal and destruction of every part of a carcass that contained 

 any tubercle whatever, and also the destruction of the whole carcass 

 in cases where the animal was found to have advanced or generalized 

 tuberculosis. He indicates, for the assistance of any meat inspector, 

 various evidences of the disease having reached that more serious 

 stage. For the rest, Dr. Martin sees no objection to the sale of 

 meat substance from carcasses which have shown only localized 

 tuberculosis, and from which every particle of tubercle has been 

 skilfully removed ; provided always, that, in every subsequent proc- 

 ess of preparing the meat for sale, due care be taken to guard the 

 salable portions from contamination by tuberculous matter. 



Reporting up n his twenty-one tuberculous cows from his present 

 stand-point, Dr. Martin tells us that, if his ideal precautions had 

 been in force, the meat of nine cows would have been condemned, 

 and the meat of the other twelve might have been sold. 



It is hardly necessary to point out that little evidence about the 

 more serious degrees of tuberculosis in the animal would be discov- 

 erable in carcasses from which the organs had been removed ; and 

 that this is habitually the case with so-called " dead meat," whether 

 English or foreign. Still, there are indications in such a carcass, to 

 the eye of an experienced inspector, of the more dangerous forms 

 of tuberculosis having existed in the animal. 



Dr. Martin's suggestions are, in our judgment, based on well- 

 ascertained pathological facts. We have no doubt that the super- 

 vision which he recommends would tend, in an important measure, 

 to the security of the public. But we are well aware that the diffi- 

 culties of such supervision are so great that many years must elapse 

 before any measure of an effectual kind can be carried into practice. 



In the mean time, we venture to express our confidence that the 

 precise information which has now been gained as to the nature, 

 extent and limitation of the risks which arise from the consuming of 

 the meat of tuberculous animals may be of value to those who have 

 concern with our meat supplies, in guiding them to the adoption of 

 such precautions as may, under present conditions, lie within their 

 power. 



