TUBERCULOUS MEAT 271 



/ \ ^Ttn ji i -i 1 Localised tubercu- 



(a) When the lesions are confined to the losig ^ pregent) 



lungs and the thoracic lymphatic 

 glands . " . 



(b) When the lesions are confined to the 

 liver 



/ \ -u J-T, i ^1 r condemned, 



(c) When the lesions are confined to the -, , / 



pharyngeal lymphatic glands . . . . C ontain- 



(d) When the lesions are confined to any ing tuberculous 



combination of the foregoing, but 

 are collectively small in extent 



and the carcase, 

 if otherwise 

 healthy,shall not 



lesions shall be 

 seized. 



" In view of the greater tendency to generalisation of tuberculosis 

 in the pig, we consider that the presence of tubercular deposit in 

 any degree should involve seizure of the whole carcase and of the 

 organs. 



"In respect of foreign dead meat, seizure shall ensue in every 

 case where the pleura have been ' stripped/ " 



The tubercle bacilli are most easily found in the glands. They 

 are scarce in the caseating nodules. In the pig it is difficult 

 to detect the bacilli as a rule. The Eoyal Commission on 

 Tuberculosis emphasised the absence of bacilli in the meat 

 substance: "In tissues which go to form the butcher's joint, 

 the material of tubercle is not often found even where the 

 organs (lungs, liver, spleen, membranes, etc.) exhibit very advanced 

 or generalised tuberculosis; indeed, in muscle and muscle juice 

 it is very seldom that tubercle bacilli are to be met with; 

 perhaps they are somewhat more often to be discovered in bone, 

 or in some small lymphatic gland embedded in intermuscular fat." * 

 The chief way in which such meat substance becomes infected with 

 tubercle appears to be through carelessness of the butcher, who 

 perchance smears the meat substance with a knife that has been 

 used in cutting the organs, and so has become contaminated with 

 infected material. Very instructive also are the results at which 

 Dr Sims Woodhead arrived in furnishing evidence for the same 

 Commission on the effect of cooking upon tuberculous meat: 

 "Ordinary cooking, such as boiling and more especially roasting, 

 though quite sufficient to sterilise the surface, and even the substance 

 for a short distance from the surface of a joint, cannot be relied 

 upon to sterilise tubercular material included in the centre of rolls 

 of meat, especially when these are more than three pounds or four 

 pounds weight. The least reliable method of cooking for this 

 purpose is roasting before a fire; next comes roasting in an oven, 

 and then boiling." f From this statement it will be understood that 



* Royal Commission on Tuberculosis, Report, 1895, part i., p. 13. 

 f Ibid., p. 18. 



